Wreckers Online
by Randomus Prime
Summary: A seemingly endless war ravages the land, people are sick and tired of fighting but have no idea how to finish this pointless war. Can the select few working in the shadows stop the shadow of death looming over millions? Kittycon/Autodog verse, violence, crack, angst and a mountain of guns.
1. Chapter 1

**_The_ _Wreckers_ _Initiative_**

* * *

**_Part 1 of 3: Wreckers Online_**

* * *

**The First Wrecker**

* * *

**Author's Foreword:**

**So this is yet another one of my series!**

**Yes, I know, I am starting so many things and don't get to finishing them but JUST YOU WAIT ... a very long time ...**

**Today I will try to post AT THE VERY LEAST one thing.**

**So, Wreckers, some of us know who they are, some of us don't. For those who don't know - they are a subgroup of Autobots in various universes composed of die-hard, toughest fighters doing all sorts of operations where the odds of success are nearly at zero (others - just go with it, I am not gonna give them a big-aft explanation, the wiki pages are for that and a whole lot of boredom). **

**I was thinking, hey, TFA never really did anything on the Wreckers (not that I cared) and then I got into the kittycon/autodog universe and finally got inspired by Crescent-Moon-Demon's works to write this ... that and I was overflowing with ideas as usual ...**

**These are not gonna be your traditional Wreckers where all of them are Autobots ... or in this case Autodogs ... some Kittycons join them too as you will see! And another thing you will notice is that a lot of the characters that never really put together before are now interacting with one another. Haters gonna hate; don't like it - move the frag on and stop wasting my time.**

**So far I think this has been going pretty well, I recently finished chapter 5, got 2 extra stories coming up for this to help explain some relations.**

**In between chapters I will often have some mini-chapters.**

**I hope you guys enjoy!**

* * *

"What are we doing here," the kittycon mumbled heavily as he scanned the room with a snarl on his faceplates, "Yoketron?"

"Calm yourself," the autodog thanked the waitress for the drinks, "Soundlbaster."

"This is pointless!"

"We have no other option."

"If we get caught, our respective governments won't be so respective!"

"You are overreacting."

"Oh, yeah, overreacting! Death would be a dream compared to the slag we will get into if they see a high-ranking Rebel officer and an even higher-positioned Elite Guard member in a frag-hole like this!"

"You know why we are here." Squinting at the surprisingly delicious oil, the mech smiled at his partner. "You understand that it is important. You would not have gone with me unless you agreed."

"Urgh," disgruntled, the red visor twitched, "I know you are right again, teacher, but for Primus' sake this is insane -even for Whirl!"

"Insane times require insane measures. Now," nodding to the bar area, the general leaned back in his chair, "Let us evaluate our first recruit."

* * *

"… and then I took the son of a glitch's own gun," a soldier wobbled on his seat, waving his arm around causing the drink to spill on others sitting close to him as he talked, "And shot the fragging slagtards until it stops being funny!"

"… hey," the bartender tried to intervene, worried that he would lose the clientele, "Hey, buddy …"

"Sorry, sorry," the grey mech chuckled and smashed the cup on the counter so hard that the glass shattered, "Until I ran out of ammo! Sheesh, you youngsters need to relax!"

"This is your last warning!," the autodog grunted, quickly cleaning up.

"Another time," despite feeling a strong urge to vomit, the guy decided to completely ignore it (he was that drunk) and spun around on the chair, continuing his tales, "This big-aft corporate moron, the frag was her name? Don't remember. She thought she'd hire a slagging dozen prostitutes as a thank you for all the scrap I did for her but they all turned out to be assassins!"

"… uh-huh, yeah," some of the others laughed at him, "Right …"

"… one of them pulled out a fragging mini-gun! I got no idea where the slag she put that thing but not two astroseconds later they were on me like petro-rabbits in heat!"

"What, your chest hair beat them up?"

"No, I put on a mouthguard and threw a hormone grenade."

** "This guy, really?"**

** "Patience."**

"Oh, yeah, of course." One of the kittycon soldiers turned to the rest of the bar and pointed at him. "Hey, everyone, this guy has hormone grenades!"

"Interfaced tons," raising the new cube, the mech gulped down the whole thing, "And got fat loot! It was fragging Christmas!"

"Sure, sure, next thing you will be telling us that you murdered your way through that femme's security and blew her head off with a frozen banana."

"… what? I did!" Coughing, he smashed the cup on the counter. Again. "The glitch got served!"

"Ok, buddy," the bartender's optic twitched, "Get out!"

"I am a paying customer." Starting to gag a little, the mech whooped out a few hundred credit bills, seemingly out of nowhere; grabbing the attention of more than just the autodog behind the bar. "Here is for the damages -take the fragging change and keep those drinks coming!"

"Say," surrounding him, a few of the rebels and renegade autodogs readied their weapons, grinning viciously, "How about you buy us drinks?"

** "Um, General, don't you think we should …"**

** "Watch and learn, my dear student."**

"How old are you," the drunk squinted, looking at the speaker, "Are you eighteen?"

"No, I am twenty seven."

"Buy your own fragging drink! You are old enough to get a fragging job!"

"I don't think I made myself clear," pressing the barrel of the gun against the other's side, the kittycon innocently smiled, "Buy us drinks to celebrate your glamorous victories!"

"No." His muscles began contracting.

"And why not?"

"B-be-because -hold on!" Raising a digit in the air, everyone stared at him until he suddenly leaned forward and richly barfed all over the mugger. "I don't remember eating lettuce …"

** "… General …"**

** "Hide under the table!"**

"DROP HIM!" About ten vagabonds rushed him, four with guns and the rest with knives.

"DROP ME, GLITCHES!?" Smashing the first attacker's head with the glass, he kneed him in the face, sending the unfortunate scoundrel flying into another. Catching his knife in mid-air, the grey mech sniper-spat another in the optics and with a quick swing stole another knife, cutting the autodog's throat wide open. The four with firearms at long last managed to take them out and aim but at this point -using two of their comrades as shields, pushing them forward with the weapons driven through their solar plexuses- the soldier kicked a chair into one of them, deflecting the arm towards another gunner and shooting the guy from the impact. The other two, stunned, were made quick work off as their helmets were smashed together.

"Ain't that neat," taking an astrosecond to admire their weapons, the autodog turned around and made clean shots into the helms of the remaining thieves, "Think I will keep one!"

**"… holy … fragging … Unicron …"**

**"I told you," getting up from under the table, the mech brushed dirt off his clothes and proceeded to their target, "He is exactly what we need."**

* * *

"… here is for the trouble," tossing the scared brick-less bartender a rather fat stack of credits, the grey autodog grunted, "How about one for the road?"

"Excuse me," someone walked up to him with another tagging along, "Would it be possible for us to talk? I have a proposition for you."

"Tell Galvatron to shove it up his aft!"

"It is not from the rebels."

"Tell High Command to blow it out their afts!"

"It is not from the Elite Guard."

"Whoever it is from," gulping down the shot and throwing it at a looter (effectively knocking the guy out), the mech proceeded to the exit, kicking a turbo-rat out of his way, "Tell them to kiss my dented, dirty aft."

"It involves your sister and her daughter, Kup."

* * *

"_… I should have brought a shotgun with me._" The kittycon shivered when the soldier's glare shifted to him. "O_r at least a rifle …_"

"You got ten astroseconds before I puke again."

"_… a very deadly, fast-shooting rifle …_"

"I apologize for misleading you," the older mech lightly bowed, "Allow us to introduce ourselves. This is Major Soundblaster of the rebel forces and I am General Yoketron of the Elite Guard."

"Ain't getting' any less barfy here."

"_… and should have worn a hazmat suit …_"

"We do not represent any corporate figure, we are not with any of the governments; we are here on our own accord in hopes for your co-operation, with a situation that is quickly getting out servo."

"And that would be?"

"Safety of the innocent."

"Cut the slag."

"I am serious, Colonel!"

"It's Private! I rejected all promotions!"

"As you know, the governments are pouring copious amounts of resources into research and development of new, deadlier weapons and technologies."

"You wanna steal that scrap? Call the …"

"No," slamming his fist on the table, the autodog growled, "They have to be stopped at all costs! This war lasted for long enough! We need to start doing SOMETHING to bring it to an end or we are risking mutual annihilation!"

"Would that really be such a bad thing?"

"Kup, please listen!"

"Fine …"

"I did not sign up to murder, I signed up to protect the people dear to me! To protect the innocent!"

"Funny, especially coming from the black-ops agent whose kill count is through the fragging roof, now, the slagging leader of Special Operations Cell."

"Which puts me in a position to know what exactly is being made! Kup," the General took out a few photos, depicting a rather large bomb, "Once the rebel scientists finish this, they will drop this on Iacon!"

"The frag?"

"I am not doing this because I want a promotion! The Elite Guard has no idea of my presence here!"

"What about this dork?"

"Soundblaster is my old student and dear friend. We are trying to come up with a plan to stop this madness."

"… riiiight, so why couldn't this dork take care of it?"

"Listen, you," the kittycon got up, on the outside – a force to be reckoned with; on the inside – begging Primus for strength to hold his exhaust tanks, "How about you get off your drunken, slobby aft and do something useful for once in your life?"

"What he means to say," the General quickly sat him down, "Is that without jeopardizing his position as a high-ranking intelligence officer under Galvatron's personal command, this cannot be done. We require someone to do the action while we provide the information and resources. What do you say?"

"When will it be finished?" Kup rolled his optics, looking off to the side.

"They are in the final stages of development." Soundblaster rubbed his sinuses. "We need to act as soon as possible."

"What's in it for you? I get the old fart's angle, but what's yours?"

"… I …"

"Please, my friend," Yoketron turned the Major, "We need him to trust us."

"Ghk, fine." Taking out a picture, the soldier handed it over to the grey mech. "This is my angle."

"Is that a …"

"Yes, it is a sonogram, happy?"

"Are you …"

"No, my bondmate is."

"Congratulations?" Giving the future father his little treasure back, he started ruffling through his pockets.

"Thanks."

"How old?"

"Two weeks."

"Thought of a name yet?"

"We are thinking Flipsides if it is a femme, and Soundwave if it is a mech."

"Here." Kup pulled out his partially burned wallet and took a little piece of paper out of the only non-damaged compartment.

"Who's this?" Seeing a grown femme about twenty years old, laying on a hospital birth holding a screaming little pink newborn, the kittycon closely looked into the autodog's optics.

"My step-sister Esmeral," brushing his servo by the tired faceplates, the grey mech sighed, "And my little niece Arcee."

"Oh, no," looking at his watch, Yoketron stood up, "Sorry, but I am afraid we do not have any more time. We will provide you with all the information you need and a plan tomorrow morning. Have a good night, Kup."

"Yeah." Watching the two leave in a hurry, he sighed, looking an empty glass in front of him. "Fragging good night."

* * *

"… are you sure he will do it?"

"For now, yes."

"What about others?"

"We shall approach them as soon as possible but right now this takes precedence."

"For peace."

"For peace."

* * *

An abandoned nuclear bunker built into a mountain and connecting to a network of underground tunnels leading to other safe houses, were all located in rebel territory; not a bad place to develop new weapons, especially with hidden wireless controlled cannons dotted all over the area.

"Identification." A kittycon guard approached the convoy at the gate.

"Lieutenant Scytherclaw," the commanding officer saluted back, pointing to his unit, "The package is in the transport."

"_… ok,_" Kup took a deep intake, "_so far so good …_"

Yoketron and Soundblaster didn't scrap out of their commitment; they provided the mech with so much detailed information that he didn't bother reading through even quarter of it.

**"Are you going to be all right?" The Major offered him a cup of water. "You drank a lot yesterday."**

** "You let me worry about that," taking out a canteen with a strange liquid inside, he growled at the contents and cringing, took a few gulps, "You worry about giving me good info, dork."**

** "… aft …"**

The plan was pretty simple: stalk the supply line for a convoy, sneak up on the soldiers at night, take one of the scientists' hazmat suits and impersonate the person, get in, plant the explosives under pretext of checking systems integrity and get the frag out of there before the slagging thing blew sky-high.

"… we will need to verify everyone's identities," the guard nodded to the mech and proceeded to the back of the armored truck, "New safety protocols."

"_… well, slag …_" The plan …

**"… blows epic aft!"**

** "Hey," the intelligence agent scowled, crossing his arms, "We are supposed to be working together!"**

** "Yeah, we are! I leave info gathering to you." Kup put another explosive charge into one of the inner vest pockets. "And you leave mission execution to me."**

"… all clear," locking up the doors, the soldier waved the driver to go on, "Proceed."

"General," the vehicle drove inside the base and into one of the hangars, "I am in."

"Perfect," Yoketron responded, "What is your plan now?"

"Well," peeking from under the vehicle onto the platforms as the workers unloaded the items, the Private double-checked the helmet wasn't letting any sounds out before continuing, "The schematics showed maintenance tunnels right under the garages, spread throughout the facility. There is plenty of tubing and machinery to hide behind."

"You can cause a malfunction, making one of the scientists to come down and ambush them, dressing in their protective suits."

"If you finish my train of thought for me again," seeing the party leaving, only a few mechs sitting at the table to resume their card game, Kup silently got out from under the transport and used a key given to him by Soundblaster to open up the doors to maintenance room, "It is your aft next."

"My apologies."

"Anyway." Activating the audio receptor amplifiers, the mech quickly glided through the partial darkness; only little, multicolored dim light bulbs driving a bit of the shadows away. "Ambush one of the idiots, plant charges and get to any of their control rooms."

"Why do you require the control rooms?"

"Dumbaft," the autodog managed to avoid faceplate-palming, "To hack into their network and get info! Sheesh!"

"Good thinking!"

"I will need your so called 'expertise' to hack their scrap."

"Frag off," Soundblaster joined into the conversation, "I got you most of the info!"

"And I will be getting you even more reading material."

"What is your problem?"

"I am still drunk-ish, I got a hangover and I found out that my sister and niece are in danger of being incinerated. You better be thanking Primus I am not having such a raging headache."

"Can you add I-am-an-old-fragtard-with-nothing-better-to-do-than-be-a-spike-towards-others-because-I-fragged-up-my-life syndrome to your list?"

"After this mission," planting the first bomb, the autodog snorted, "You, me, outside. Some fresh aft-whooping outside would do you some good; it's not healthy to sit on your aft all day."

"What if I am sitting outside the base entrance with a sniper rifle and a vehicle to get your sore valve out of there?"

"Friends, friends," the General intervened, "Let us focus on the mission!"

"Aw, come on," Kup pouted, "I was just starting to like him!"

"We should make this into one of our rules," the kittycon hummed, "Never go alone on a mission."

"I can live with that." Sneaking up behind a mech dressed in a hazmat suit and cutting his throat, the soldier dragged the body into one of the darker corners and quickly put the suit on. "All right, I got four charges, put one in the tunnel just in case. Where off to?"

"There are three silos," Soundlbaster looked over the schematics, "Are you on D-23?"

"Yeah."

"The first rocket should be just down the hall, behind the heavily plated doors, which you should be able to access with a blue security card."

"I am in," looking around, the autodog still felt a little nervous despite his disguise, "Ergh, good thing the glass is tinted on this scrap."

"See if you can get to the warhead, if not, uh, hold on..." The other two head paper getting shuffled. "Ah! If you can't get to the warhead, at the very least try the tanks in the main body; they are using alcohol-water mixture for fuel."

"Oh! My kind of fuel!"

"That might have been a mistake …"

"Where are those tanks again?"

"That was definitely a mistake …"

"Done, put it inside the warhead."

"Do you remember where the other two are?"

"Kinda hard to forget after getting drilled by you two fraggers for a whole cycle!"

"Good."

"Another klik and I would have gotten two new notches on my gun!"

"Oh, Kup," Soundblaster paused, "Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"In the picture you showed me, of your sister and niece, she is a kittycon and so is her daughter."

"What about it?"

"I don't know, just wondering how you feel about that set-up."

"Me being an autodog and her being a kittycon?"

"Yuh-huh."

"I guess I just don't look at people from that angle."

"What about your parents?"

"Offline. Dad was a mechanic, fell in love with new neighbor girl which, as you may have guessed, was my step mom. She already had Esmeral."

"Had any sibling problems?"

"Frag that," sweeping a security card off the table, Kup proceeded into the second silo, "That femme is a fragging saint."

"Esmeral, Esmeral. Hm, why does that name sound so familiar? And Arcee?"

"You know her?"

"No but I heard the name a bunch of times, can't remember where."

"Second charge planted, moving to third. Look for the nearest console."

"Wi… oh, scrap."

"What," tapping on the helmet, the autodog slowed his pace, "What's happening?"

"I just remembered from whom I heard that name."

"Please." Making a turn, his spark nervously pulsed, giving the soldier a bad feeling. "Do be so fragging kind to share."

"One of our top officers is her bondmate."

"Wait," freezing in place, Kup sliped into the shadows on reflex, "What? You mean …"

"Deathsaurus just rolled in with a commando unit."

"That. Fragger. Will. Die." Interrupting the commlink, the mech growled and quickly proceeded to the last target.

"… this might have been a mistake too …"

"Soundblaster," Yoketron rejoined the frequency, "Keep an optic out on things, I will keep trying to reach him."

* * *

**"… I am sorry …" the winged kittycon looked off to the side.**

** "How dare you?" Esmeral weakly banged her fists on his chestplates. "You are not doing this to me!"**

** "Wh-what's going on?" Kup walked into the room, wiping his servos with a cloth.**

** "This does not concern you," Deathsaurus waved him off.**

** "The frag it does," the autodog tossed it off to the side and helped his sister down on the couch, "Ahat dumbaft thing did you do this time?"**

** "It is none of your bu…"**

** "Yeah, why don't you tell him, huh? Come on," the femme started crying, "It's not like people won't notice that you are GONE!"**

** "Y-you," the mech dropped his jaw, "You WHAT?"**

** "I am joining the rebellion! They are fighting for equality!"**

** This wasn't the first time he brought it up; every time they were able to convince the guy to stay and refrain from doing something insane, but …**

** "What about me," the teal kittycon could barely breath properly, "Huh? Who is going to fight for me?"**

** "Come with me!"**

** "ARE YOU FRAGGED IN THE PROCESSOR?"**

** "Hey, sis." Kup quickly sat down next to her, hugged the bawling 'former and rocked her gently. "I am here for you."**

** "… good, your brother will …"**

** "… beat the ever-slagging spark out of you if you don't shut the frag up," menacingly growling, the soldier gave his step-brother an incinerating glare, "What's the big idea, moron?"**

** "I will be fighting for our sparkling!"**

** "Offline? Is that how you are going to raise Arcee?," Esmeral shrieked, "Offline? I am in my THIRD trimester! Our daughter will need a FATHER, not some idiot idealist rotting in the ground!"**

** "You will be thanking me once the new world order is established," Deathsaurus growled, "A world where injustice doesn't exist! A world where everyone is equal and valued! A world where our sparkling can grow up to be whatever she wants! Galvatron will make a tomorrow we all can be proud of!"**

** "Leave." Unable to even look at him, the femme clutched her belly. "I never want to see your faceplates again!"**

** "… whatever you may think of me," stopping at the doorway, the kittycon looked at his bondmate one last time, "I will always love you …"**

** "… 'Meral …" Kup tightened his hug.**

** "H-ho-how c-cou-could-d h-he d-d-do-do th-this to m-me?," the femme silently cried, digging her head into her brother's shoulder, "I thought he loved me!"**

** "… it will be okay." Kissing her on the helmet and gently stroking the flattened ears, the mech shed a few tears himself. "I promise, it will be okay …"**

* * *

The situation was quickly spiraling out of control; Kup went silent and from the looks of it, he was going to go ballistic on the arrived officer. Normally that wouldn't be much of a problem, but there were too many unknown factors for Soundblaster to properly evaluate the situation and give any sort of prediction, let alone come up with a simple plan.

"Oh, scrap." Seeing a patrol deviate from their normal route and come straight to him, the black kittycon quickly packed up and rolled down the hill to the buggy at the foot. "Yoketron, my position may be compromised! Inform him that I may not be able to pick him up!"

Quickly checking the silencers before starting the car, he took out the map and thoroughly analyzed it for another location, as he drove out of the woods under an ark of trees.

"I still cannot reach him."

"Frag!"

How could he have missed Deathsaurus' arrival? On the other servo, he never really bothered much informing even Galvatron about his destinations. Either way, this was promising to turn into a major clusterfrag and Soundblaster was doing his best to come up with a strategy.

* * *

Slowly following the officer with a gaze, a small shadow broke from the tree line and quickly climbed to the top, concealing itself with a dirty, dark-green, dark-brown camouflage; yellow plating barely showing as they armed the sniper rifle and closely inspecting the layout of the base.

Breezing through arming of the third charge, Kup re-established the commlink:

"Yo, console hacking time!"

"Where were you?," the kittycon nearly screamed from his end.

"I needed to calm down. I am good. Now," coughing, the autodog grunted, "I am on G-9."

"… are you sure you can …"

"I DON'T HAVE ALL FRAGGING DAY!"

"One of the security offices is near-by," after a faceplate-palm, Soundblaster sighed and got back to him, "It is better since it is one of the smaller ones; should only be one guard there."

"Hey," the autodog activated the outside speakers and patted the soldier as he approached him, "The commander wants to see you for something."

"Oh, for Primus' sake," the kittycon whimpered, "Why is it me? Why is it always me? We did it, like, literally, ten klicks ago!"

"Eh, you are, um," a little confused, he gulped, "Because you are, um, pretty?"

"It's a curse," the rebel got up and slowly walked down the hall, drowning in self-pity. "A curse! Why did I have to be born so beautiful? Poor, poor me …"

"… uhuh, wow." Sitting at the console, Kup shook off the rather disturbing thoughts and got back to task at servo. "Wish my faceplates were half as glorious as his aft …"

"… what are you …"

"Come on, codes!"

"Here we go! Nine, two, five, three …"

* * *

** "… p-pl-please, K-Kup," Esmeral grabbed him by the arm, "Stay …"**

** "Are you sure?"**

** "Who better see my little girl come into the world than one of the three people who actually gives a frag?"**

** "A-all right," the autodog nodded and sat back on the stool, locking fingers together, "I will stay, is that all right, doc?"**

** "I don't see why not! Okay," putting on medical gloves, the white coat prepared all of his tools and repositioned the patient, "The sparkling is coming and I need you to push now!"**

* * *

"Downloading files," the mech put in a clean portable storage device into the slot and transferred the documents, "Says it should be done in one klick twenty three astroseconds."

"Sit tight, I am still looking for a good place."

* * *

** "… almost there! Almost there! Push! Push!"**

** "Ooooaaaaaaaah!" Crying, the femme put whatever little strength she had left into that last effort. "Ngghaaaaaaaaa!"**

** "… waaaaah, waaah," the little sparkling squirmed and screamed, tiny ears flat on the head, "yaaaaaaaaah!"**

** "There she is," looking down at the tiniest, cutest kittycon sparkling, Esmeral couldn't help but shower her with kisses as tears poured down the tired faceplates, "My Arcee! My sweet, sweet Arcee!"**

* * *

"… thirty astroseconds …"

"Hey, do you mind running half of a mile while being shot at from every cannon on the mountain?"

"Well," stretching the vowels, the autodog scratched his belly through the layers, "I have been trying to shave off a few kilograms …"

"… are you serious?"

"OF COURSE NOT, YOU DOOFUS!"

* * *

** "… she is so beautiful." Esmeral finally stopped crying, gently stroking the cooing sparkling's ears and kissing those adorable miniature servos clutching her faceplates. "I-I can't believe it!"**

** "Hey, Arcee," the step-brother leaned a little closer and let the newborn suck on his digit a little, "If there is trouble, you call your uncle Kup! He won't let anyone give you scrap!"**

** "Oi," giggling, she nudged him, "What about me, huh?"**

** "Are you kidding me? I bet you can end this fragging war with a single swing of your frying pan! Screaming will be overkill as it is!"**

** "Hahahaha," looking back at her treasure, the femme asked the doctor, "Excuse me, would it be possible for me to perform skin-to-skin?"**

** "Oh, darn, thank you for reminding me," quickly unwrapping the baby and giving it to the mother, helping her slip the child under the gown, he chuckled in embarrassment, "Sorry, this is a new thing; I must have forgotten."**

** "That's all ri… oh! Someone certainly is hungry!"**

** "Do you require any aid?"**

** "No," smiling at the healthcare professional, she shifted for more comfort, "I am good, thanks."**

* * *

"… finally, sheesh." Kup made sure the data was secure in a bullet-proof lockbox and shoved it in his pocket. "Piece of scrap …"

"More good news," Soundblaster patched through, "I managed to disable a good half of the turrents."

"Huh …"

"But hurry the slag up! It's only a matter of time until they notice it!"

"Fine, fine, I am on my way!"

"Can you access any of the underground tunnels?"

"No, they sealed them off," choosing the less used route, he proceeded to the one and only exit out of the facility, "We need a plan B."

"How about a patrol?"

"Non-armored hazmat suit, they will ask questions."

"Well, me driving in there in a barely plated scouting buggy is out of the question."

"What if I use one of their trucks?"

"They got rocket launchers and those other things called nuclear-bunker grade DOORS."

"Yoketron, how about a little help here?"

"Yoketron?"

"Yoketron!"

"He must be at a meeting or something."

"Oh, yeah, those higher-ups just love getting together to scratch each others' optics out."

"Sometimes they show off. Hey, look at me, I am a general of the infantry units, I got more units than anyone!"

"Hey, look at me, I am a general of the armored forces, my units are harder than anyone's!"

"Morons."

"Idiots."

"So, any more great ideas?"

"How about that run you mentioned?"

"Rockets, flamethrowers, turrets, cannons, armored vehicles with cannons …"

"You make it sound so appealing."

"What can I say, I am fragging vixen. Oh, oh scrap …"

"More good news?"

"A report just got published in the network."

"About?"

"Deathsaurus is there to evaluate the readiness of the missiles."

"Slag!" Kup punched the wall and clenched his denta plates.

"If they pass his inspection, they will be deployed!"

"What are our options?"

"We could offline the guy, but since we are going to blow the place up anyway, that option kinda seems redundant. And since suicide is not exactly a path I would recommend, I suggest we keep searching for options."

"Urgh," without realizing, he made a turn to the central hall, "The fun just keeps on piling up!"

"Tell me about it."

"Uh..." Suddenly realizing that he was in the middle of a huge crowd, the autodog stopped and looked around. "Scrap …"

"Oh, yay, more good news."

"Hey, you," Deathsaurus stood up on a platform and pointed at Kup, "Are you one of the scientists?"

"Uh," thanking Primus that he had the sense to void his bladder in the morning, the mech timidly nodded, "Uh, uh-huh!"

"Come with me," the winged soldiers jumped off and waved him to come over, "I require some technical help."

"R-right away!"

"**WHAT ARE YOU DOING?**" Soundblaster screeched over the commlink.

"I HAVE NO IDEA!," the Private took a few deep intakes to try and calm down.

"**WE ARE SO FRAGGING FRAGGED!**"

"HEY! YOU CAN ESCAPE! I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF A FRAGGING REBEL BASE!"

"**WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?**"

"Wait, I have an idea!"

"**What are you …**"

"Oh, commander," Kup pointed into one of the maintenance tunnels, "There was something I wanted to bring to your attention."

"Oh, sure," the two walked into the smaller halls, "What is it?"

"Ok, you listen to me, afthole." Kup ripped off the hazmat suit helmet and cocked a gun into the kittycon's faceplates. "What the frag do you think you are doing?"

"K-k…"

"Make a noise," shoving the gun in his mouth, the autodog growled, "And I will blow your fragging head off!"

"Khkh!"

"What the frag is your dumbaft doing? Do you NOT realize that these are fragging BALLISTIC MISSILES?"

"I know!"

"Do you NOT realize that they are going to be dropped on IACON? You know, that place where your BONDMATE AND CHILD LIVE?"

"… G-ga-galvatron won't do that!"

"YOU ARE MAKING FRAGGING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, YOU FRAGTARD! WHAT THE FRAG DO YOU THINK THEY WILL BE USED FOR? A DECORATION FOR HIS NEXT FANCY TEA PARTY?"

"What's that noise?"

"Enemy on base!"

"FRAG!," securing Deathsaurus, the autodog shot the two guards, "Soundblaster!"

"**I heard!**"

* * *

"Why are you doing this?" The rebel officer didn't resist.

"I am doing it to save my sister and her daughter!"

"I would …"

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN COME FOR THE BIRTH, YOU BASTARD!"

"E-esmeral …"

"DON'T. YOU. DARE." Kup shot him in the arm. "SAY. HER. NAME!"

"Ghaaaaaaa! Let him through," the kittycon screamed to the other soldiers, "Let him through!"

"Do what he says," the mech growled so viciously, they made a few steps back, "You fraggers are lucky I am in a good mood today!"

"Let him through!"

"Yo, you people aiming at the back of my head! You shoot, more than likely I will drop this piece of slag anyway!"

"Kup, we can figure this out!"

"SHUT UP!" Shooting him in the pedes, the mech dropped him and exploded in a murderous frenzy. "FRAG IT! DIE!"

Even the veterans were scared brickless; they saw some ferocious things in their days, lived through insane battles but this was on a whole new level! Their comrades were dropping like flies!

"Formation! For…" One of the officers wanted to rally but he got shot straight in the head.

"SNIPER! TAKE COVER!"

The whole field turned into a boiling, chaotic massacre of entropy.

"SEE YOU ALL IN HELL!" Ramming the gates with an armored truck, Kup flipped the switch.

* * *

"Urgh..." Regaining consciousness, he gasped and shot straight up. "What the …"

The whole mountain was blown off the face of the earth; giant piles of smoke and dirty flying into the blue sky as some debris was still smacking down on the ground.

"What the …"

There was the truck, turned over, parts of it on fire with a few rebel corpses brutally murdered and cut up, one of them still twitching from a fresh gaping chest wound.

"Who did this?" He ran up to the soldier.

"Khkhhh," the mech gurgled one last time and dropped dead, "hhhkhhhh …"

"Huh, what the …"

In large letters a name was written on the roof of the vehicle.

Unicron.

"Huh?" With a corner of his optic, the Private noticed a creeping shadow run away into the forest; a bit of yellow, shiny plating flashing for just an instant, before disappearing into the smoke. "Holy frag …"

"Kup!" Soundblaster revved the engine. "Come on! We gotta get out of here!"

"R-right, right!"

* * *

"I apologize for my absence," Yoketron walked into the room, "How did the mission go?"

"You want to tell him?," Soundblaster sighed.

"The mission," Kup lowered his head for a moment but an astrosecond later lifted it up and smiled, a bit of relief playing on it, "Was a success."

"In that case," the General walked over to him and reached out his servo, "Allow me the honor to invite you to be the first Wrecker."

"Hehe," shaking his servo, the soldier laughed, "Wreck and rule!"

"Hey," the kittycon nudged him as they walked down the hall, "Nice job out there."

"Yeah," the autodog nodded, "You too! Thanks for the snipe cover."

"Um," the Major stopped and shuttered his optics, "What?"

"Well," the Private looked back at him, "When I was getting out of the base, you provided fire support, no?"

"… uh," the Persian uncertainly shook his head, "That wasn't me."

"Aw, come on." Kup tapped him on the shoulder. "Don't be shy! I won't think any more of you."

"Um, yeah," the soldier shook again, "That wasn't me."

"So, wait, you are not Unicron?"

"You should really stop drinking …"

"No, no," the Wrecker started explaining, "When I woke up after the explosion …"

* * *

"… hm …" A huge mech looked over the damage.

"W-we are still trying to figure out what caused this, your Darkness."

"No matter, Oil Slick."

"M-master?"

"This doesn't even put a dent in my plans," the giant slowly walked to a mech who crawled from under a truck, "In fact, I think it worked out for the best!"

"H-h-help!" The soldier shivered in agony.

"Deathsaurus, I believe?"

"Y-y-yes!"

"Do you want my help?"

"Y-yes!"

"… let us make a deal then?"

"Wh-whatever you want!"

"Perfect," with a wave of his servo, the colossus locked the dying mech in stasis, gesturing his aid to take care of the rest, "Now, you serve Scorponok!"

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**You know, this is kind of my first, own mash-up ... well not really ... but I certain characters just fit the bill quite nicely, I mean come on, this is a different universe AND fanfiction! Let the imagination run wiiiild~!**

**I am trying to make this somewhat compatible with CMD's works although there are some inconsistencies and all but both of us are affecting each other's works quite a lot so don't duck out and go read some of her stuff! Link to her is in my profile.**

**I hope you liked it! Don't forget to leave a review!**


	2. Chapter 2

Two of a Kind

* * *

Author's Foreword:

* * *

**Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait, I have been ridiculously busy with work and a whole ton of other things, especially my move to a new place! I am now living with Mythcraze! Woohoo! You can find a link to her account on my main page, check her out!**

**Anyway! Back to fanfiction!**

**This is the second chapter of The Wreckers Initiative.**

**Apparently TFA did have a Wrecker team. I found out by accident to be honest! They could have done so much more with that universe but no, Cartoon Network screwed us over, again, just like with Young Justice. Let's give a round of applause to Cartoon Network for horrible decisions!**

**Like I said before, a lot of these characters are not Wreckers in other continuities, in fact I think only Kup is out of my list but the two that I am going to introduce in this chapter I think would make excellent additions.**

**I also have 2 more series relating to this one! One is Path to Tomorrow, which is Warpath's and Onslaught's backstories, I am nearing completion, a few good chapters! And the other one I yet have to name but it is Yoketron's backstory! I will try and post more of Path to Tomorrow as soon as possible since I go back to a few details from it. Yoketron's backstory will have to wait, I will announce it in future chapters.**

**Now, without further ado, here we go!**

* * *

"… so who exactly are you?"

"… like I said, I have a proposition for you two."

"I don't suppose he is one of your friends? Blam!"

The mech just casually walked into their secret meeting place, as if it was his house. Warpath and Onslaught quickly recovered from the initial shock and sprung into action.

"I am Major Soundblaster of the Rebel Force intelligence," the kittycon calmly introduced himself, not even paying any attention to the guns pointed at him, "You are Eilte Guard Captain Warpath and Rebel Force Lieutenant Onslaught, correct?"

"Nope." The autodog started circling around him to block the only escape route. "I am Corporal Frag-You-Up of Why-The-Slag-Are-You-Here. Kazam!"

"And I." The other soldier took out another pistol. "Am Colonel Bury-You-Six-Feet-Under of the Ninja Gladiator Pirates."

"Oh, Primus," the intruder rubbed his sinuses, "Why did I have to get stuck with these two idiots?"

"We are not idiots …"

"… we are socially challenged! Blam!"

"Indeed." Sighing again, Soundblaster slowly took out his gun and put it down on the ground. "Anyway, I do not mean you harm, like I said before, I have a proposition for you two."

"Warpath?"

"Yeah? Bang!"

"Let's hear what he has to say?"

"Fine by me! Fwoop!"

"I will go put the tea on …"

"… uh," watching the two rush off to make the preparations, the Major whimpered, "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

* * *

"… is this," Soundblaster tried sitting more comfortably, but being tied up was making it really hard to find a good position, "Really necessary?"

"That depends." Onslaught poured him a cup of a steaming brown liquid, the aroma pleasantly tickling their olfactory sensors. "That depends."

"On what, exactly?"

"If you can make us like you." Warpath started a little fire, stuck some marshmallows on sticks and put them to slowly roast. "You can always give us pretty things like lots and lots of guns ..."

"… or sweet things," the other nodded, taking a sip out of his cup, "like more guns or candy, or guns, or edible food, or guns …"

"… or a couch that doesn't have a nest of turbo-rats in it," the Lieutenant kicked the furniture with the back of his pede as he said that, making some of the critters peep and scratch against the wood, "Not that we mind too much but there is just something about it that makes us a little wary, you know?"

"Right," the kytticon replied flatly, "And I assume it has nothing to do with the smell or anything."

"Smell? What smell?"

"I don't smell anything." The autodog reached between the couch cushions, taking out a pretty big shotgun and with a loud clonk, put it down on the table. "Other than gunpowder if you don't start talking. Drafam!"

"Wow," their prisoner laughed, "General Yoketron was right about you two; you sure have a style of your own."

"H-how," Warpath nearly dropped the plate with melting s'mores, "How do you know him?"

"Oh," Onslaught took out a pack of expired chocolate cookies and opened up a jug of frozen milk, "dis 's gon' b' good …"

"Well, I was a stray, he picked me up at his dojo …"

* * *

"… and now we are trying to keep both sides at a stalemate in order for requests to diplomatic negotiations to gain more strength, with the help of individuals like you two."

"Uh," the two soldiers looked at each other and cautiously asked, "Like us?"

"Yes," Soundblaster nodded, getting used to the poorer energon circulation. "Individuals who want this war to end. I mean look at yourselves! A Rebel Force and an Elite Guard officers; becoming friends on the battlefield and supporting each other through the ordeals of war!"

"So you think," Warpath linked his fingers, "We are perfect for that cause? Kablam!"

"Indeed I do."

"Are there," Onslaught slowly put down the bag of cookies and leaned forward, looking their captive straight in the optics, "Are others like us that you have called upon?"

"So far there is only one other," the Major nodded, "General Yoketron is currently inquiring about another potential agent."

"W-will, um..." The autodog slowly put the platter down. "Will he be joining us?"

"No."

"So," the kittycon waved his digit in the air, "You have a mission, for both of us, that will, ultimately, help the negotiations start?"

"Essentially," the mech nodded, "yes."

"Would, um, would you," the Lieutenant patted Warpath, "Would you mind if we talked about this?"  
"Oh, yeah, sure," Soundblaster deadpanned, "While you are speaking in private, I will just go ahead and enjoy your hospitality, and treats, and tea, with my whole body tied up."

"Oh, yeah." Onslaught scratched his head for a moment and then walked over to the officer. "Sorry about that."

"Oh, no, it's, um, uh," assuming that he would untie him, the persian came to be quite disappointed, when instead the soldier put a few more rust candies on his plate, "uh-huh …"

"Enjoy!"

"Yeah," the Major growled, left optic and right ear twitching in irritation, "I will get right to it …"

* * *

"What do we do?"

"You are asking me? Blam!"

"Yes," Onslaught mocked Warpath, "I am asking you! You know General Yoketron personally!"

"Well …"

"And I have no idea who this guy is!"

"That's a good point …"

"And something feels wrong about this!"

"You say that every other day! Gaham!"

"Ok, fine, so, what do we do?"

"Well," the autodog stroke his chin, "Yoketron did mention that he had a dojo and students so that part kinda holds up. Fwang!"

"What about the whole stalemate thing?"

"Uh, I don't know," the Captain shook his head, "But don't you think that if there is a chance that we can be part of something that brings negotiations back on the table, we should take it? Kadang!"

"You do realize," the kittycon ran his fingers across his grizzled chin, "That we can get royally screwed?"

"How would that be any different if this war keeps dragging on? Please don't tell me that you want this to go on forever! Flam!"

"No, no, I …"

"You have a femmefriend with a sparkling, for crying out loud! Gazang!"

"Fine, fine." The mech rolled his optics. "As long as it is not one of those suicide missions, that is an actual suicide mission, of which there really is no way out, I am fine with it."

"What, you would go on an Ick-Yak-slag suicide mission? Flang!"

"Anyway," the Lieutenant raised his tone for an astrosecond and turned to Soundblaster, "we acce… uh …"

"… how in the …"

"Oh, hey." The Major merrily waved at them, happily stuffing his mouth with delicious expired treats and cooled off tea. "Throw in a boombox and get rid of the rats and you guys got yourself a nice place! Maybe a heater too?"

"… what," Onslaught dropped his jaw, "The …"

"You know," Warpath crossed his arms and thought about it, "A boombox would not be such a bad idea …"

"… wow," the kittycon replied flatly, "Just wow …"

"Do that for a few days," Soundblaster grinned. "And you will be right about where I am!"

* * *

"… so let me make sure I understand." Onslaught pushed another petro-cow away from him, an annoyed smile drawing on his lip components. "We, two ranking officers, amongst the best soldiers in our armies …"

"… are escorting," the mech pointed at a little figure tightly wrapped in a few layers of winter clothes and goggles, effectively covering every inch of its body, "This little twerp, through a forest and over a mountain, crawling with possibly hostile autowolf and insectipuma warriors, to a tribe leader summit that happens only once in, what, forever?"

"I am not a twerp," the little sparkling growled, "You are a twerp!"

"Shut up." The soldier waved them off. "Twerp."

"… you," gasping and getting pouty, the figure crossed its arms and faced the other way, "You people are mean!"

"Um, right." Warpath held onto one of the handles on the side of the cargo train to help him keep his balance. "Yeah, depending on how the summit goes, the insectipuma and autowolf tribes will decide whether they should go to war and with whom. Bang!"

"So where does the twerp come in, again? What can this boy or girl do? Wait does he or she even have a gender?"

"Hey, come on," the autodog nudged him, "Give the kid a chance, will ya? Flang!"

** "… This is Sacca." Soundblaster petted the figure over the head and double checked that nobody was in the alley. "Sacca over here is crucial for the tribes summit."**

** "And how exactly is a sparkling supposed to help out?"**

** "I am not going to bother explaining to you the sheer political complications that will arise if Sacca doesn't show up at the summit. Let's just say that it is in everyone's interest, including our own, that the tribes don't declare war on everyone and make this war into an even bigger clusterfrag than it already is …"**

** "Why, um," the kittycon squinted, "Why not get a special convoy?"**

** "We are the special convoy. Fwam!"**

** "I do not understand." The sparkling gave the two a dirty look. "Why am I being escorted by wannabe soldiers? Did they even get all their shots? I don't want to pick up a disease from, um, these, two, individuals."**

** "Hey, hey," Onslaught growled, getting into the little person's faceplates, "I may be a stray but I assure you that I am perfectly …"**

** "… ew! Ew, ew, ew! Ew," grabbing a stick and starting to beat the Lieutenant with it, the kid quickly hid behind Soundblaster, "You are disgusting! And they allow you to procreate?"**

"… yeah," the mech growled, shaking his head, "Not happening."

"I don't need to give you a chance," Sacca grumbled and walked over to the other end of the railroad cargo car. "The animals smell better than you!"

"I WILL FRAGGING …" The kittycon jumped from his seat.

"NO, ONSLAUGHT," Warpath quickly sat him back down, "NO! BAZAM!"

* * *

"**… fragging kids these days,**" the mech looked back at the petro-cow staring at him, "**What, you don't agree?**"

"Hey, Sacca," Warpath holstered his rifle and knelt in front of the sparkling, "Think I could sit with you for a little while? Glabang!"

"**… don't you give me that look!**"

"Heh." The figure frowned, pointing to a spot next to them. "Your friend is going too crazy now?"

"**… yeah, yeah, I know what you are thinking, 'what is a drop-dead handsome stud like me doing in a train cart filled with cows'? Well, let me explain …**"

"… he is just screwing around." Waving Onslaught off, the autodog cleared the spot of dirt and with a loud thud sat himself down. "So, you are important. Flabang!"

"Indeed I am," the kid sighed. "Did they teach you to say overly obvious things in the military or is it something you do on your own?"

"**… so you see, this is how you can use an extension cord to throw water-melons at your local turbo-foxes, so that they would stop eating your tomatoes!**"

"Just trying to start a conversation," he shrugged, took out a chocolate energy bar and broke it into two. "Want some? Krank!"

"No, I am quite all right. Answering your attempts at engaging into a dialog," Sacca coughed and pushed a petro-cow away with their leg, "Why do you wish to talk to me, exactly? I am interesting and worthwhile to get to know, but for you I am just a mission."

"**… and then I ask him 'does he look like a glitch' …**"

"Well, we are of course bound to complete our mission no matter what." Warpath started chewing, moaning at the taste of his breakfast. "But if you look at the assignment as two soldiers escorting an important individual by non-traditional means, that in itself might as well be considered a failure before it even begins. Clapow!"

"Huh." The sparkling thought about it for a few astroseconds. "Why is that?"

"**… and then I go like … say 'what' again, say 'what' again, I dare you! I double dare you!**"

"One," quickly finishing the bar and taking out a piece of chewing gum, the Captain gave one to the figure, "Simple word. Flam!"

"**… duck …**"

"What is it?"

"**Duck …**"

"Respect."

"**Duck!**"

"I, I …" Sacca was about to reach for the treat when Onslaught kicked the cart doors open, grabbed the two and threw them into the next one, jumping onto it right after them:

"**DUCK!**"

"… how dare you gra…" The sparkling was about to give the Lieutenant a lecture, when the railroad car they were just riding in was blown away by a powerful blast, tearing it clean off the tracks. "I shall go duck now."

"Keep moving." For an astrosecond, the kittycon watched the whole hundreds of carts start to slow down but quickly tore himself away from it, shooting a few times at the hills, assuming that is where the attackers were firing from. "Go, go, go!"

"Ack!"

"Sorry, Sacca," Warpath grabbed them with one arm and bolted out of the section, with Onslaught right behind them, "You can lecture me later but right now we gotta …"

He didn't get to finish his sentence as the car the three just left was violently torn into pieces by another loud bang, making theirs dangerously wobble from side to side, as the searing debris set the haystacks in the cargo hold on fire.

"Whoever they are," trying to get to the head of the train, they didn't even stop to put the fire out, "They sure know how to bring up the heat! Bang!"

"Oh, Primus," Sacca whimpered, trying to cover their ears. "Oh, Primus …"

"Come on." Onslaught unhooked the burning cart and left it to its own devices. "We gotta …"

"Oh," the trio turned around to keep going, but stopped in their tracks as, one by one, some Insectipuma warriors walked in, armed to the teeth, "Hello …"

"Um," Warpath pointed at the missing cars disappearing in the horizon, "Yeah, that is not what it looks like …"

"Funny story," the other nodded, whole body tensing up; ready to spring into action, "Really."

"How about we all sit down," watching an especially big one, dressed in what seemed to be Colossus class heavy armor, make a few steps out of the ranks, the autodog slowly pushed Sacca behind one of the crates, "Have some tea, eat expired slag and laugh about it, hm? Flang!"

"Wha-what..." The sparkling confusedly looked at their two guardians. "What are you guys doing? That's the personal guard of my tribesmechs! They probably came here to help us …"

"… Sacca," the Captain quietly whispered, "Trust me, keep your head low …"

"Sacca," the giant frowned and walked to the middle of the section, "Is correct. I am Barrage. We are here to help."

"Uh-huh." Onslaught lifted his pede and tried wiping it over one of the smaller boxes. "Yeah, and the petro-cow poop makes me feel like a bucket of roses."

"Isn't it a basket of roses?" One of the other soldiers scratched his head.

"In my case," giving up, the kittycon grimly continued, "It is bucket."

"I for one think he smells great! Blam!"

"Thank you!"

"You are quite …"

"Enough," the mech swung his arm in the air as his voice boomed through the quickly tensing atmosphere, "We shall escort, ahem, Sacca, from this point."

"Yeah, you know what," the two soldiers looked at each other and said in unison, "No."

"Uh." Surprised at the unexpected answer, Barrage paused for a moment. "Excuse me?"

"No. Blam!"

"What he said! That includes the blam!"

"Warpath, Onslaught," the sparkling stood up and patted some of the dust off, "We can trust them."

"Nope, no," the Captain stepped forward, taking out his assault rifle, "Not gonna happen. Klang!"

"I have orders to take Sacca from this point on," the warrior protested, with a servo gesture calming down his subordinates, "And get her to safety."

"See!," the wrapped up shape started raising their tone. "We are …"

"Ok, seriously." Warpath stomped and put his servos on the hips, turning to Sacca. "You stay behind cover and you guys, how stupid do you think we are? Primus, talk about extremely poor planned out attempt to take Sacca away from us! Bam!"

"… uh …"

"How dare you," the autodog sniffled, "We just met her! Fwoom!"

"You people are sparkless," Onslaught whimpered, slamming his fist on the wall. "How can you do that?"

"This is too cruel! Flam!"

"Too cruel!"

"… sir," one of the guards leaned in, "Are you sure …"

"Positive," the insectipuma grunted. "Now, shall we …"

"Calm down, calm down." The kittycon patted his friend and started walking towards the colossus. "Listen, can you give us a minute? My comrade just wants to say some final goodbyes!"

"… uh …"

"Please," the soldier wiped off a tear, "Have a heart!"

* * *

"… what are you two doing?," Sacca lowly growled.

"Sweetie, trust me." Warpath pulled her behind the crates. "They are not here to help! Fwoom!"

"How can you tell?"

"… well, for one …"

**"You are never to allow anybody else join your party, or get anyone else to get her to the summit," Soundblaster looked them both in the optics, "Or I swear I will get to your stuffed animal collection."**

"… and for two …"

**"… I know exactly where it is and -oh, Primus, will you stop trying to tie me up? You want me to show you how to really tie a person? What was that? No? That's what I thought!"**

"… so …"

"Have you not noticed how our attackers have magically stopped firing at us when they entered into the cart? Boom!"

"… um …"

"If they were going to come with us, why didn't they meet us up on the train station? Wowie!"

"… oh …"

"On top of that, how did they get on the train? They must have had a fast moving vehicle; I am thinking a fragging Juggernaut tank they used to shoot at us! Where the frag did they even get one …"

"So what," starting to panic, the sparkling gulped, "So what do we do?"

"Escape! Duh! Blang!"

"But how?"

"Easy, by cutting through them! Fwoom!"

"But there are so many of them! We should surrender!"

"Sacca," he squeezed the sparkling's shoulder, "This is one of the things you gotta know about people like me and Onslaught."

"What?"

"We …" Taking out two grenades, the autodog ran out of cover as the kittycon snapped an automatic shotgun off his belt.

"… never …" The Lieutenant removed the safety and pointed at the insectipuma squad as the Captain pulled the pins and jumped on a crate.

"… surrender!" Warpath threw the explosives at the opposite side of the cart, landed on the ground and pushed a crate for his partner to hide behind in the next few asroseconds. Onslaught slid behind the new cover, raised the gun over the box and sprayed them with a few rounds before the shells exploded.

"EEP!" The sparkling shrieked as the whole section violently shook from the powerful eruption, detaching them from the rest of the train.

"Let's go, let's go," the two grabbed Sacca, leaping out of the train onto the snow and after rolling to a stop, they got up and dashed towards the forested area, "Let's go!"

* * *

"**… ou-our-r cr-cre-eato-or, l-liv-livin-n-ng i-in ou-our s-sp-par-rks,**" the kid rocked back and forth in the corner of a cave, prayer interrupted by a never ending stream of sobs and whimpers, "**S****h-sha-sharing y-yo-your-r wa-warm-mth a-and …**"

"Frag it, frag it," the kittycon smacked a tree, making some of the snow fall down on him, "Frag it!"

"**… m-ma-may y-yo-your mer-m-mercy gr-gra-ant m-me co-com-mfort.**" The sparkling couldn't stop shivering. "**P-p****-pr-prote-tect m-my h-hu-humble a-abo-bode a-an-and b-be-belov-ved fa-fa-am-mily …**"

"Are we, at the very least," the mech growled one last time, "Anywhere near the border?"

"According to the map," Warpath popped up a hologram, with a personal GPS locating program, "We should actually be a few kilometers away from it. Bang!"

"**… I-I,**" Sacca loudly sobbed, "**I sh-shall get up! I-I am o-of th-the pr-proud tr-tribes!**"

"Oh," the soldier stopped pouting and straightened up, "Great!"

"And there is an Elite Guard outpost just two kilometers away that probably already sent word to the main force about the explosions, which means the engineering and recon teams will be here within the cycle. Frahg!"

"**… I-I th-thi-ink I w-wet m-my c-co-codpiece,**" the sparkling whimpered, "**I a-am fr-free-free-eezin-zing!**"

"Oh," the Lieutenant pouted, slouching, "Great!"

"Here is what I propose," the autodog sympathetically looked into the darkness of the cave, "I give Sacca my codpiece, get, ahem, them, changed …"

"… what?" Onslaught widened his optics.

"**… what?**" The kid sat up straight.

"… keep them company …"

"**… are you insane?,**" the sparkling gasped.

"… are you insane?" The mech dropped his jaw.

"… until I get back from the outpost with some supplies and we will get back on the road. Fwoosh!"

Warpath would have laughed if things were different when the two, a seasoned veteran and a little sparkling both said in sync:

"Frag no!"

"**Don't leave me with the stray! He smells!**"

"Don't leave me with Princess Cheeky! She is cheeky!"

"**He is a big meanie!**"

"She is a little gl…"

"Enough, you two! Primus," the Captain first turned to the cavern and then to his friend, "I saw kids act more maturely than both of you! Sacca, you are in a life-and-death situation, I am sorry but you don't get to be picky when your survival is at stake! And you, dude, you have a sparkling of your own! You are a father! Consider this training! Bam!"

"… but …"

"It's called multitasking! Out of the three of us, who is the only one who can get supplies? I am! That leaves you guys in a situation where you have to work together and you will work together, because without respecting each other, there is no way any of us are going to get out of this alive! No, no," the Boerboel lowered his tone, noticing he was talking too loud, "Forget about us! This summit can determine which way this war goes and anything else, other than continuing peace from the tribes will result only in more suffering, pain and death. Now, I am asking you -not ordering you, asking you- to give one another respect the that you both deserve! Boom!"

"… ungh," Sacca and Onslaught grumbled, "Fine …"

"All right," going behind a tree, the mech proceeded with the first stage of the plan, "Now, relocate yourselves once I leave because if I get captured, not that they can ever catch me, I won't even know where you are. Gadonk!"

"What's the password this time?"

"Same as usual. Fapow! Wowie!"

"Got it," the serval walked over to the den entrance, "Contact us when you come back to the woods and we will get going."

"Right! Grapow!"

"Are you going to play the Top-Secret-Special-Forces-Assignment card?"

"Why not," zipping up, the Boerboel tossed his piece of clothing to the kittycon, "Always works and nobody asks any questions. Anyway, I am off! Bloom!"

* * *

"… why, exactly," an insectipuma in heavy armor slowly walked over to the damaged train tracks, picked up a frozen, remaining piece of one of their comrades and shoved it into his underling's faceplates, "Are they in pieces?"

"C-commander Venom," the soldier gulped, making a step away from the dead, half-frozen optic staring at him, "W-we …"

"Failed? My, yes," the mech tossed the goop off to the side and kicked another down the hill, "I can see that. Quite well, actually. You know what else I can see?"

"Wh-what c-can you see," he shivered, "Commander?"

"For one, I can see that those two idiots escorting, what did they call that brat again?"

"Sacca, sir."

"Sacca! Those two morons escorting her didn't just kill one or, well, fourteen, of our best warriors," the leader knelt down and inspected the debris, "They also managed to escape! Imagine that!"

"Sh-should we p-pursue th…"

"Pursue them? Hm," the mech chuckled and walked around the guard, the constant voice and tone alterations making the insectipuma soldier feel that it wasn't just the winter chilling him to the bones, "You know what, that absolutely most definitely never crossed my mind! What a marvelous, controversial idea! How long did it take you to come up with that crazy plan? Primus, you must be a genius of some sort to come up with something like this! Who would have thought that pursuing an escaped target would be such a great idea, hm? So what are you waiting for, hm?"

"I-I," the soldier gulped and slowly started backing off, "I will …"

"GET RIGHT TO IT YOU WROTHLESS FART OF FRAGGING UNICRON'S EXHAUST FUME," Venom took out his gun and fired a few shots, some missing and ricocheting off the Juggernaut tank armor, "OR I WILL STRAP YOU TO THE BARREL WITH YOUR SPIKE STICKING INTO THE GUN AND SHOOT THE MOTHERFRAGGER!"

* * *

"… so," Onslaught watched Warpath disappear behind a line of trees, still holding the codpiece in his servos, "How do you propose we do this?"

"Give me the codpiece," Sacca reached out their arm. "And don't you dare look!"

"Why would I," the serval grunted, glaring at the sparkling. "I don't plan on having my optics burned out."

"You are a twit," the kid grabbed the clothing article, "You know that? Now go look some other way!"

"Whatever," the kittycon grumbled. "Not that I would ever look anyway."

"Good!"

"Good!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"So," after a long awkward pause, Sacca finally started changing, "Um, Warpath kept trying to start a conversation with me."

"Yeah," the Lieutenant nodded, scanning their surroundings, "He does that."

"I found it to be a pleasant experience despite how weird and, um," the kid paused for a few astroseconds and giggled, "Eccentric it was!"

"Hey," Onslaught scratched his neck, "Twerp?"

"Yes, stray?"

"Where did you learn to talk like that?"

"Um, d-do you," the sparkling sadly sighed, "Do you promise not to tell anyone?"

"Twerp, I saved your life," the mech sighed too, looking off to the side. "And you are giving me a chance to make the world a better place; no way I would I willingly betray your trust."

"I-I see. Thank you," Sacca continued after a short silence, "I was raised in the Grand Imperial Palace of Iacon."

"Say what? Wait," completely forgetting that the kid was changing, Onslaught swung around to look at the youth but slipped and landed on his back right in front of his charge, "Whaaa…"

Unholy fragging Unicron dancing the Macarena on a pogo stick, serving Primus an expired sandwich!

Rich golden optics stared back at him, horror and fear quickly filling up the beautiful robs as the slim, beige and black naked body shivered in the chilling cold, the cutest ears …

"P-p-perv," the sparkling threw the wet codpiece at the kittycon, grabbed their oversized jacket and leaped at the other end of the little grotto, "Pervert!"

* * *

"… well," Warpath sighed, looking at the dunes of snow, the wind slowly shifting the humongous piles of sparkly frozen water. "At least these hills don't have optics nor is it crawling with vicious insectipuma warriors with a big-aft tank, courageously hunting a trio with the most devastating gun produced by the Elite Guard … I hope …"

* * *

"… I am so sorry," standing outside of the cave, Onslaught couldn't stop face-palming at himself or pleading for forgiveness, "I slipped!"

"I, um, apologize to," the youth gulped, "I, um …"

"Are you kidding me," the kittycon noticed he was nearly screaming and tuned down the volume, "For the love of Cybertron …"

"Let us just say that we are both at fault," the sparkling cautiously peeked from under the winter coat, "And we shall attempt our best to avoid, um, incidents like this, from ever happening again?"

"Oh, Primus, oh, Primus." The soldier kept pacing, trying not to lose his head, "Okay, okay!"

"In that case," the charge cautiously started putting their clothes back on, "I shall continue with my task and relocate after."

"Right, right." Half-sitting against the cavern entrance facing the woods, the serval grabbed a servo-full of snow and washed his faceplates again. "You do that."

"I have, a little bit," Sacca broke the awkward silence, timidly resuming the conversation, "Of a question, would you mind answering it?"

"Oh," the Lieutenant shrugged and checked his shotgun, "sure, go ahead."

"Have you, um, sired a sparkling?"

"Yes," surprised at the query, Onslaught paused for an astrosecond, "His name is Blast-off."

"What about your bondmate?"

"Oh, we are not bonded yet. I am hoping to once this war is over."

"So Blast-off was conceived out of bondlock? I dare assume he was not adopted."

"Oh, yeah. I don't care if the society frowns upon it. Ha, slag, we don't even live in a society. We live in a clusterfrag of scrap and the closest thing we have to a peaceful, sane individual is a senile old femme in berth, pumped with morphine, an assault rifle under her pillow."

"H-how," Sacca froze, "C-cou-could you leave her there then?"

"No offense but," the serval felt tears pooling at his optics, "I am not sure you are old enough to understand."

"Try me!" They got back to dressing up.

"B-before we ever got to even kissing," the kittycon loudly exhaled and flattened his ears as he explained, "I was wondering what kind of a father I would become; if I will make all the right decisions or just plain out fail."

"I, could, relate to that …"

"I was so anxious about my role as a dad that I asked some of our neighbors to let me sparkling-sit their kids, asked them for suggestions, learned how to read and crammed whatever books about parenthood I could possibly find."

"That is quite intense!"

"I knew that I was going to be a sire but, slagging Primus, do you know when I really felt like a father?"

"I would not dare fathom a guess."

"Blast-off was just delivered." The mech took out the burned picture of his little family and gently stroked the only whole figure on it. "He was in our arms, screaming out his lungs as the tiniest, cutest limbs wiggled in the air. I reached out to tickle him when he grabbed one of my digits with those tiny servos, cooed and sucked on it as the most adorable little optics happily looked at me, smiling, full of joy!"

"O-oh, my," Sacca sniffled, "Oh, my!"

"I swore," the Lieutenant didn't notice whimpers escaping his vocalizer, "That from that day forward, I will do anything to give those two a world where they can live peacefully; without wondering if there will be food and drinkable water, if they will even live to see the next dawn and hope that the dusk won't bring any more nightmares!"

"So you have joined the rebels for that cause?"

"No," the kittycon took a few deep intakes, "I joined way before. A patrol found me after I escaped the orphanage and ever since, I was part of this stupid resistance."

"P-pardon me," the youth gaped, "B-but I was under the impression that you were, um, what are the words I am looking for here …"

"… in for the cause? Equality and all that stuff? Ha!" Onslaught smacked the ground with his fist and put the photo away. "That was probably how the whole thing started but all of it was unceremoniously flushed down the toilet without anyone noticing, while those dumbaft politicians feeding their pro-war verbal diarrhea instead! Do you know why I joined the rebel army? So that I could climb the slagging chain of command and start pushing for peace or, heh, find a group who wanted this slag to end or, at the very least, be able to protect my family!"

"I-I," Sacca went silent for a few moments, "I see. Perhaps you were right …"

"No, no I'm not," breaking out into tears, the serval hugged his knees and dug his face between them, "What kind of a fragging dad and mechfriend am I to leave the two most important people in my entire life behind like that? Frag, I am a fragging failure!"

"Onslaught! D-do not say that! Do not think this way!" The fully clothed sparkling rushed out of the cave and gently lifted up his head, wrapping her arms around the thick neck. "You are a wonderful dad! You are doing your best! I met a lot of supposedly brave people who never had to lift a digit for anything they have but none of them will compare to you!"

"Y-you are amazing," Sacca tightened her hold, "You never gave up! I-I …"

Slowly leaning forwards, the youth quickly slid off the scarf and gave Onslaught a peck on the lip components.

"… uh," jaw dropping, the serval's processor went completely blank, "Ah …"

"Hee hee," the kid blushed and snuggled with the Lieutenant. "You know, in my culture, if you see someone nude and kiss them, it means they will get bonded one day!"

"…uh," the kittycon felt like his optics were going to pop out, "Wha…"

"You better tell your femmefriend that she has some competition! Now," unable hold back her playfully mischievous giggling, exploding in even more laughter as the sparkling saw the stunned look on his faceplates, the charge closed up the mouth with her servo and pulled the mech on the arm, "Come on! I believe we are relocating, no?"

* * *

"… whoever invented this scrap," Warpath gave up on cussing the holomap into working properly, giving the wrist device one last nasty smack on the main frame, "Should get a medal in fail! Boom!"

Even with all of this snow and the dumbaft piece of glitching tech managing to give him only the general direction, he should have been about half-way to the outpost by now. That wasn't even the bigger problem here though! There was a Juggernaut class tank just happily driving around, and surely the crew figured out that the Elite Guard will be swarming the whole place in less than two klicks, which came as a relief since it gave them more time to get the frag out of this area.

"… let's face it," the autodog braved through another snow hill, "It will be a tiny bit hard to explain why two grown mechs are walking around with a sparkling …"

If only they could get rid of the death machine prowling the sector, no doubt searching for them, accompanied by Primus-knows how many insectipuma warriors, then this whole mission would be so much easier.

"… this better be worth it." The Boerboel trembled a little as snow found its way inside his suit. "Or I will wag my index digit at Yoketron! Yeah, that will show him! Bang!"

A whole number of questions piled up to which the Captain could only guess the answers to. Why would Sacca's fellow tribesmechs offline the kid, how did they even find out about this mission and what the slag would the sparkling's presence yield to the summit discussions? However, so far the biggest inquiry he couldn't help shake was:

"Who the frag is …"

"**… Sacca,**" Onslaught's voice suddenly came on the radio frequency, "**Shave my aft and call me glitch!**"

"… you have got to beaaow! Oh," suddenly hitting something with a loud clank, Warpath closely inspected the tall object and realized that irony has a sense of humor – the prey found the hunter, "Frag …"

* * *

"… so tell me about Warpath." Sacca hopped from one log onto another, sticking their arms out for balance. "He seems very sad to me,. Does he also have a tortured spark?"

"Um, well," trying to shake off the shock for the millionth time, the kittycon started scanning for shelter, "Yeah, very. The war killed his entire family."

"E-even," the sparkling turned to the caretaker, "Even his parents?"

"Yeah," the mech sighed, looking off to the side, "Even his parents."

"Oh, oh," the youth gulped and grabbed his servo, continuing their search, "Wh-what has happened?"

"Th-this is not exactly a story any kid should hear." The serval pushed a branch out of his faceplates. "Let's just say that he really knows pain."

"I-I," the charge flattened their ears, "I see. Y-you are concerned for him, I take?"

"Well, yeah! Don't tell him I told you that but the fragger is probably my best friend."

"Best friend? But, um," Sacca tried processing it, "But how did the two of you meet?"

"Battlefield," the kittycon chuckled, "We were at each other's throats for a good cycle until both of us got fed up with that scrap, went over to a near-by village, helped deliver a sparkling and we kinda started hanging out since then …"

"Y-y-you," the youngling dropped their jaw, "You aided a birthing?"

"A little," Onslaught scratched his neck, "mostly it was just us panicking, really. Then the villagers came over and now we have a nice little vacation spot in a deep afthole of the world, so nobody will ever think of looking for us there! It is lovely and hot as slag in the spring, and wonderful and fragging cold in winter."

"Indeed, nice?"

"Yuh-huh. Anyway," the Lieutenant nudged Sacca, smiling down at them, "What's your story?"

"Hm," taking a few astroseconds to think about it, the sparkling took a few nervous intakes, "Well, as I have mentioned before I was raised in the Grand Imperial Palace of Iacon, where they started giving me the full Princess Education, as I call it."

"Oh, Primus, that must have been tedious!"

"Tedious is truly not the word! It was so monotonous, irksome and, forgive my language, plain out stupid!"

"How did that work, exactly?"

"I was provided with access to tremendous amount of knowledge, and professors and teachers at the top of their respective fields were assigned to start teaching me their 'humble' crafts since I was three years old."

"Holy scrap! How old are you now?"

"Hee hee," gently pushing him, the sparkling swung her arms back and forth, "It is not polite to ask a lady's age!"

"Are twerpy bratty little princesses considered to be ladies?" Onslaught grinned.

"Hey!" The youth lightly smacked him on the pede. "That's Princess Sacca for you!"

"Well excuse me," the soldier jokingly mocked her, "Princess Twerpina!"

"Stop it," stretching out the vowels, the kid giggled, "King Stray!"

"Your Bratiness, such language indeed does not suit a tiny unicronian spawn like you!"

"I will have you know, Knight Stinky Flea Monger," she quickly climbed a little hill and towered above the Lieutenant, "That I can have you punished in a truly horrific, energon-freezing ways, that you shall be begging me for mercy!"

"Oh, yeah? What are you going to do? Wet your codpiece?"

"No, I shall cry like a little femme and make you fall in love with moi forever and ever and I shall never even look your way," waving him off with a suave dancing move, Sacca got a little dramatic, "Oh, the pain in your spark will be legendary as you sigh, while I deny you! How romantic!"

"Whoa, there," the serval grabbed the charge by their servo, barely able to contain a laugh, "You will grow up to be quite a spark breaker, Princess!"

"But of course," getting out to a clearing, the kid twirled to the center, happily clapping, "I am excellent in everything I doooOOAAAAAH!"

Suddenly the ground collapsed under the royalty, making her fall down into the darkness.

"… wha … frag! Sacca!" The kittycon jumped to the edge, failing to notice that the soil under him started to give too. "SaccaaaAAAAAAAAH!"

It was about a dozen meters fall but they landed into something relatively soft.

"Onslaught," the sparkling shrieked, jumping on him, "Onslaught!"

"I am here," the mech tightly hugged with one arm, slipping off his shotgun with the other and got up, scanning the room, "I am here! Where are we?"

"Oh, hi …"

A few dozen pairs of glowing, yellow optics belonging to dark shapes looked at them from the shadows as, one by one, insectipuma warriors walked into the light, holding out their weapons menacingly.

"Um," the Lieutenant gulped, "I am Santa Claus? Sorry about the roof, you guys didn't have a chimney …"

"Silence," one of them cried out. "Take them into custody this instant!"

"Sacca," the soldier pretended to stretch his neck but in reality activating the radio, "shave my aft and call me glitch!"

* * *

Warpath and Onslaught had their own little secret language. They may not have thought of every possible scenario but the more basic ones the two covered, such as if one of them were to get captured.

"To be fair," the autodog tinkled a little bit, "This could be so much worse! Chazang!"

"**Commander,**" he heard someone inside the tank shout, "**I think there is someone outside!**"

"**Then get out and see who it is, before I sew your valve shut!**"

"Oh, guys, tsk, tsk, tsk." The Captain quickly climbed the massive vehicle and waited at one of the tower hatches. "Who is the prey now? This is easier than getting caught by Yoketron when I try to steal his tea bags! Kapow!"

"Why does it always have to be me?" The trapdoor slowly opened as an insectipuma warrior peeked out, a gun shoved straight into his faceplates. "Oh, fudge, poop …"

"I am sorry," pulling the trigger, the officer took out two flashbang grenades, triggered the timers and threw them inside the tank, "Nothing personal. Fwam!"

"Now," making sure that his gasmask was on, the mech jumped inside, "Let's go shave Onslaught's aft!"

* * *

"Welp," the kittycon tried bending the steel bars again but merely failed, "Gha, that didn't work! What should I try next, I wonder?"

"Try shutting the frag up," the guards glared at him, "Before we stick you like a petro-pig!"

"Oh," the Lieutenant mocked him wiggling his servos in the air, "Such big words for such well-endowed dudes!"

"Uh," the two soldiers looked at each other, "Thank you?"

"You are welcome," energetically nodding, he turned around and walked over to Sacca. "Hey, how are you holding up?"

"W-we," doing their best not to cry, the sparkling couldn't stop some whimpers from escaping, "We are going to die, aren't we?"

"Well, me, those guys are going to brutally offline after a spa-like torture treatment, maybe even sing something! You," the serval smirked at the insectipumas losing their patience, " They'll mercilessly not offline you, after a torture-like spa treatment in the best facilities, before shoving you into clean, palatial jails such as this one! Maybe give you a mudbath or two!"

"How can you possibly," sobbing and sniffling, the charge's breath became erratic, "Be so harmonious and taunt fate at a time like this?"

"Another thing you should know about people like Warpath and me," after doing a quick stretch, the officer sat next to the youth and placed them between his pedes, warmly wrapping his arms around the figure, "We never leave our own behind."

"W-war-rpath w-will come," Sacca snuggled with him, "R-right?"

"Of course he will!"

"W-when?"

"Oh, believe me," gently petting the kid, Onslaught smiled, "you will know!"

"How?"

"Three, two, one," the officer snapped his digits, "Boom!"

"Um, ok, let's try that again! Three, two," seeing as nothing happened, the kittycon squinted, "One, boom! Huh, nothing again! Well, I am sure I will get it right if I keep trying!"

* * *

"… hmpppffmmm!" Venom desperately squirmed, trying to get out of the knots.

"So, Ransack," the Boerboel scratched his back, turning to a mech standing next to him, "Why did you help me, again? Not that I am looking a gift insectipuma in the mouth but I do wonder. Fwoosh!"

"For one," the warrior tightened the ropes around their prisoner's limbs and secured the gag, "I am sick and tired of the corruption in my tribe."

"Uh-huh." The soldier nodded, closely watching his new partner pull the bodies into one pile. "I am not a genius or anything but I am assuming there are more reasons? Blam!"

"For two," lightly chuckling, the adult double checked the status of his gasmask, "You need my help to complete your mission of escorting a certain someone to the tribes summit. I do not want war and if there is a chance that that certain special someone can prevent more death, then I will do all I can to ensure the mission is a success."

"Please," following the soldier over to the controls, Warpath holstered his gun and started working on the turrets, "Do tell me that there is more! I was so enticed by how we saved each other's lives back there and that teamwork was just exquisite! Hypnotizing, even! I especially liked the part where you tied up your commander after killing your subordinates in cold energon …"

"Let's get something straight," the insectipuma grabbed the autodog by the shoulder and slammed him against the wall, getting straight into his faceplates, "They are not my comrades, never were. I hate every single one of those spikewads and if I could kill them again, I most certainly would make the whole experience truly agonizing for them!"

"You know," the Captain squinted, smirking at him, "Who you remind me of? Fwoop!"

"Who?"

"My friend Onslaught. There is a little something you should know about him. He is a father."

"Why would I need to know that?"

"I am getting there. There was once a guy who threatened to murder his femmefriend and sparkling. That was really scary. That was so scary, in fact, that I started wondering what a pissed-off father in action would look like. Drapong!"

"Where are you …"

"And now," slowly pushing him off, Warpath gently smiled, "After seeing you, I have an idea how far a dad would go for his offspring. Bam!"

"Wh-what," Ransack widened his optics and gasped, "H-how did you …"

"You two have the exact same I-will-fragging-beat-you-to-death-with-a-toaster look in your optics."

"Th-that is, um," shying away a little, the insectipuma nervously nodded "That is very observant."

"How old? Klang!"

"Five." He sat down on one of the chairs and rubbed his sinuses. "Recently turned."

"Congratulations. Your kid got a name?"

"Well," the sire sighed, "It is very complicated …"

"Try me, I can speak three languages. Dwadong!"

"Heh, eh, no, not in that way complicated."

"Oh," the mech occupied the other seat, "What do you mean? Woosh!"

"I, um," Warpath swore he saw a tear run down his cheekplate, "I will explain later. We gotta go save your friend and um, that other, person."

"The turret is ready," turning to the controls again, the autodog gave Ransack one last glance, "Do you know where to go?"

"Oh, yeah," the warrior's voice quickly filled with rage, "I know exactly where she is …"

* * *

"Three, two, one, boom! Nada. Three, two, one, boom! Oh, wait, wait! Aw, that's just the wind. Three, two, one, boom! Scrap! Still nothing!"

"Are you," the sparkling trembled, "At last, going insane?"

"No, no," the Lieutenant inspected his servo, "Hm, weird, it usually works."

"Will you just," the wardens yelled, "Please, shut up?"

"Maybe," sighing, the serval hummed, "These are the performance issues I was told about?"

"I will give you some performance issues." One of them quickly unlocked the door and crackled his knuckles. "Some real good glitches!"

"Uh-huh," getting up and shoving Sacca into a corner, the kittycon yawned, "You are gonna share some of yours? I am not so sure I am comfortable with that!"

"That's it," the other mech stormed inside, taking out his weapon, "I'll practice some word carving on you!"

"Guys, guys, please," the vanguard smirked and just the way the shadows fell onto his faceplates, with the calm, playfully menacing tone chirping from his vocalizer, made the two realize exactly what as about to happen, "There is plenty to go around!"

"… I should have listened to my mom," one of them sobbed, "And trained to be a musician …"

* * *

"They have, how many bases in Elite Guard territory? Blam!"

Ransack wasn't just driving; he gave Warpath a datapad with almost a complete set of intel, regarding the insectipuma tribes' activities and the autodog was just barely scratching the surface of it all.

"I trust you will give it to the right servos?"

"Oh, yeah," the officer energetically nodded, "I know two dudes who would know exactly how to use this info!"

"Marvelous." The mech frowned. "We will arrive in just a klick …"

* * *

"… three, two, one, boom! Nope, still not working …"

"WILL YOU STOP DOING THAT!," Sacca broke into tears and fell on her knees as yet again they were surrounded by a horde of angry warriors, "I-I-I wa-want m-my mo-mommy!"

"Servos where I can see them." One of the soldiers walked up closer to them. "Now!"

"Hold on, hold on! I think I got it! Three …"

"Stop or I will shoot!"

"… two …"

"Freeze!"

"… one …"

"This is your last warning!"

BOOM!

The gates were blown off their hinges; a rain of deadly splinters showering down upon the masses of insectipumas, as a giant tank came crashing through the entrance, like a monster out of a nightmare, turrets mercilessly mowing down their ranks.

"Ghak," the Lieutenant grabbed Sacca, trying to ignore a piece of wood digging into his shoulder and bolted to the massive vehicle, "Come on, afthole! Open up!"

"Well excuse me!" Warpath jumped out of the hatch and helped the two up. "Princess Onslaught! Boom!"

"What the frag took you so long?," the officer closed the hatch, letting go of the sparkling and running up to the controls, "Were you taking a coffee break or something?"

"Punch it! Boom!"

"Next stop," the insectipuma companion entered the commands and let Warpath drive, freeing the seat for the Lieutenant, "The tribes summit."

"Uh, Warpath?"

"He is legit. Bam!"

"Cool," crashing into the spot, the kittycon suddenly remembered, "SCRAP! MY GEAR!"

* * *

"… so," Onslaught finally calmed down once he secured the picture of his son and femmefriend in a breast pocket, "What's the deal with him?"

"… well …"

* * *

"P-princess," the soldier knelt before Sacca, nervously shivering, "A-are you a-all-all r-ri-right? You are not b-bl-bleeding from a-anywhere?"

"N-no," the sparkling answered, closely inspecting his faceplates. "I-I am quite fine."

"Oh, good, good!"

"Tell me," Sacca grabbed his servo, making the warrior noticeably sweat, "What is your name, brave soldier?"

"M-m-my na-name?"

"Indeed, your name! I wish to know it," the youth kept pressing, picking up a strangely familiar scent, "So that I can honor your contribution to …"

"N-no, no, no," he gulped and waved his arms in the air, nearly losing his balance. "Th-that i-is quite a-all right, I-I-I was j-ju-just performing m-my duties t-to y-you!"

"… right," slowly nodding, the youngling tilted her head, looking at the insectipuma with a penetrating gaze, trying to place all these weirdly acquainted things in her memory, "I shall respect your wish then."

"Th-thank you," Ransack sadly smiled, "Your Majesty."

"Well," Sacca unzipped her heavy jacket, took the hood down and loosened the scarf, "The worst is over and there is no longer a need for me to be fully covered! It is surprisingly hot in here!"

Her faceplates, tired and yet still retaining the grace only royalty is given to have, showed in the dim light of the tank, the rays making the black and beige lush fur playfully shine.

"What," the princess widened her optics at Ransack's shocked expression, "Is there something on …"

"I-I," starting to cry, the insectipuma squeezed his knee as hard as he could, "I am not worthy!"

"Too look at me?" The kid furrowed her optic ridges. "Are you sure?"

"I-I am just happy th-that you are safe," the mech nodded, got up and bowed, "Your Majesty. If there is anything you need, your wish is my command."

* * *

"… yeah," Onslaught scratched the back of his head, pointing at the tank behind him, "Any idea where we can park this thing?"

"You are not of the tribes," the guards blocked their path, refusing to let the travelers pass, "You have no business here. Leave."

"We are transporting someone to the summit!"

"Leave."

"You guys wanna play it rough? Fine," the kittycon got on top of the vehicle and whistled into the hatch, "Let's play rough!"

* * *

"… the Kwarlei Tribe demands that we go to war!"

The summit had already begun and debates were exactly where they always were – nowhere – with everyone losing the original point of these discussions.

"Trapusht Tribe wishes to join the Rebel Forces in their fight against The Elite Guard!"

"Werknos Tribe will leave the summit! The message of our ancestors was always peace over the senseless shed of energon!"

"… the Ionu Tribe …"

"… The Boreak Tribe …"

"… The Queara Tribe …"

"… The Tribes must unite and destroy The Elite Guard and The Rebel Forces …"

"ROCK AND ROLL, BABY!"

The gates were completely obliterated and crushed under the giant's massive tracks as its main gun poked at the center booth with the current speaker frozen in fear.

"Councilmechs and Chiefs of The Tribes," a small voice announced over the silent crowd. Sacca calmly walked on the main gun, escorted by Ransack and the other two, before she jumped onto the little platform, dismissing the mech who had currently been speaking. "You will have to forgive my delayed arrival due to the multiple assassination attempts directed at me. These three courageous soldiers, one of The Tribes, one of The Elite Guard and one of The Rebel Forces, worked together to bring your Princess to you!"

The whole giant hall exploded in screaming matches between one another, until the sparkling put an end to it with a mere wave of her servo:

"This summit is in recess until further notice," the kid at this point sighed "And we all shall reach a decision that will satisfy everyone as we work together to a better future! Let us not forget the steps The Tribes made to unify under one banner! I am not commanding you for you are not mindless puppets; I am not ordering you for you are not lifeless machines; I am not telling you for you are not spoiled sparkligs!"

"Let us," Sacca paused for an astrosecond and looked at Ransack, "Honor the sacrifices some of us had to make."

"Wow, wow," the Captain and the Lieutenant both leaned in, tones lowered to a whisper, "What's going on here?"

"Oh, well," the femme gulped, nervously shifting in place, "I guess this is just as good as time as any to tell you the truth. I don't have a name. Sacca was supposed to be my name if I wasn't of royal blood …"

"So you don't have a name?"

"No, not yet," the little girl sadly smiled, "I haven't passed some of our rites yet …"

"This is just wrong! Blam!"

"Well, tradition is tradition, I guess …"

"… but for the two of you," she slowly walked over to the two and hugged them, "I will always be Sacca …"

"Princess," a group of warriors called out at the foot of the podium, "It is time for the preparations."

"What was that all about?" Onslaught tipped his chin at the sparkling as the guards escorted the youth to her quarters.

"Keshnin," an autowolf femme walked up to the three officers, "It is great to see you again, Keshnin Ransack."

"Keshnin Sludge," the insectipuma bowed, "Likewise."

"The Princess grew up to be quite the individual!"

"Indeed she has." The two looked at the other side of the humongous hall, with some of the construction crew already hurrying to perform the repairs, as the sparkling disappeared around the corner. "I am proud of her."

"Likewise," the mech sighed and looked at the autowolf councilor with a loving gaze, "Likewise …"

* * *

"… what's a Keshnin?," the kittycon scratched his head, "Sounds like a title."

After their mission was done, the two stuck around for a few more cycles just to give Sacca a proper goodbye and exchange comm numbers. Ransack walked them to the tank and proposed his help whenever it would be required.

"Hm, well," Warpath took out a datapad and typed in the word as Onslaught started them home, "I got a dictionary here and HOLY FRAGGING FRAGITY FRAG! BAM!"

"What? What?"

"Keshnin," the autodog slowly read, "Is a title given to Chieftain or Head Shaman of the previous generation, once they sire a child and or step down as leaders."

"… holy fragging fragity frag …"

* * *

"Uh," Soundblaster finally regained his senses after staring at the rich bounty that was a fragging Juggernaut tank, "How … wha … how … huh … wha …"

"So," the two chuckled, "Can we join your little club now?"

"… uh … wha … wh… uh … how … wha …"

"… I think that means a yes …"

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**These two will make even Yoketron go WTF, given enough time.**

**I hope you liked this one~! I really enjoyed writing some of the parts, especially putting in the Jaggernaught tank! Basically, imagine a tank. Now imagine it the size of one of those 2-3 story tall buildings and even bigger in length! Dialogues and just the sheer randomness are probably my favorite parts to do.**

******I am also introducing some OC's, as you noticed. Some will play a big role, some will just be just extras to make the story and setting feel more ambient. If you want me to include your OC's in this project let me know and we will discuss it!**

******I am going to try and post the next chapter now!**

******Don't hesitate to ask me any questions!**

******Be kind and leave a review~!**

******Thanks to C.M.D. for editing, reviewing, WTFing and laughing!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Dance of The Blades**

* * *

**Author's Foreword**

* * *

**Hello~! **

**Chapter 3 is up! I hope you like it!**

**To everyone who have read C.M.D.'s Tooth and Claw series, this one will explain a lot of the parts and some of the main events that drove say, First Aid, to do what he did. (Sorry it took me so long to post this C.M.D. ^ ^')**

**I like to think that this is the chapter where I reveal just a little more of the "main villains" in this series, and showing just how scary they can be and some of the things they are capable of doing.**

**Also, with this chapter, I am going to be introducing more "family" oriented characters so don't worry, I won't stick to JUST the insanity of war.**

**Yes, it is a bit longer than the rest, I honestly tried to compress it as much as I could but I hope that you will be able to enjoy it either way!**

* * *

** "… h-hel-help," an Elite Guard soldier ran out of a house with four knives sticking out of his left arm, "help!"**

** "Report! Wait," Star Saber unsheathed his sword and quickly gestured the others to help him out, "Where is the rest of your squad?"**

** "H-he, agh," breaking into tears, the mech took out his gun and with a shivering servo pointed it at the entrance, forgetting about the cold turning his energon stained clothes and armor into a giant icicle, "He, i-it! It ki-kill-killed them!"**

** "I told you..." Everyone turned their optics to the dark entrance, as a huge, vicious-looking knife cut through the side of the door frame, a servo grabbing the opposite end and slowly pulling a figure, drenched in pink fluid, out of the shadows. "Not to piss me off, glitch!"**

** "… d-die," ripping himself out of his fellow soldiers' hold, the autodog shrieked, emptying the ammo clip and charging the Bull Terrier with a knife. "Die!"**

** "Pfhehehe," not even bothering to dodge, the teen widely grinned as insanity beamed through his optics, readying his butchering knife, "Dumbaft!"**

** Before anyone could do anything, the teen slid on the ice and with one swift movement lopped off the mech's head, making it fly through the air and roll at the pedes of Star Saber.**

** "S-sir," Blacker gasped, disgusted from the sight, "Allow me to take him in!"**

** "Oh," the stranger smiled, playing around with his weapon, "Captain Bravely-Peed-My-Codpiece wants to play with the big boys?"**

** "Why, you …"**

** "I shall do it," Star Saber walked closer to the teen and took a stance. "Come at me!"**

** "Hehehe," starting to laugh like a maniac, the Bull Terrier took out another knife and charged the commander at full speed, swinging to gain momentum, "WITH PLEASURE!"**

** "H-he," the second-in-command clutched his fists, "Is a …"**

* * *

Monster.

Monster, not Blades. Monster, not Prisoner or Condemned.

The autodog wouldn't be surprised if that's what they called him on the file.

"Ngh, hundred twenty, hundred twenty one..." Using the ceiling bars of his cell to do chin ups, the teen took short, few astroseconds breaks as he worked out. "Hundred twenty two …"

"**… are you sure we need this many people for just one guy?**"

"… hm," hanging freely, the autodog tilted his head at the door as he heard people approach, "What's this now?"

"**… I mean, I know we are the highest security prison in the world,**" the guard's nervous voice was barely audible through a dozen pedes marching down the hall, "**But he is just a teenager! Is he really that scary?**"

"Oh," quietly jumping down, the mech rubbed his servos and debated what should he do to the new blood, "Goodie! Two presents in one month! They must really starting to like me after I maxed out their health insurances!"

"**… if you let this guy even think that you are scared,**" one of the veterans cocked his gun, "**he will …**"

"… gobble up your spark? Rip your head off? Pluck out your optics?"

"**… make you regret you were ever born.**"

"… that's so boring! I am not so boring." The autodog thought about it for an astrosecond. "Am I?"

"You," the warden walked up to his cell and looked through the triple layered, bullet-proof glass window, "To the wall! Now!"

"Wall," he growled, grabbing the controls to the electrical wiring lining the room, "Now."

"What?" Frowning, the prisoner turned around and placed his servos on the wall. "Another cavity search? I swear I am not the one who steals the knives …"

"Guardsmech," the administrator glared at the teen, "Apply the restraints."

"… what, no hello," Blades chuckled, "No 'how are you doing'? I was a lot more courteous to your momma last night than that!"

"… excuse me," the greenhorn strapped one of the cuffs, "Would you mind moving your arms and pedes closer together?"

"Hey, Warden Spikewad," the convict laughed, pointing at the new guy, "I like this guy! Think your dad is big enough of a slut to …"

"Soldier, that was an order!"

"R-right, s-sir," the intimidated mech gulped and forced the rest of the cuffing, whispering to the Bull Terrier, "I-I am sorry …"

"What's your name," the autodog quietly asked, "Kid?"

"G-gr-rapple …"

"Go do something else with your life." The guards grabbed the chains and yanked him out into the hall. "You don't have the optics of a murderer."

"Shut up." One of the guard slammed the back of their rifle on his head. "Move!"

"So," glaring at the jailor, Blades decided to let it slide, for now, "To the torture chamber? Are we having a tea party with yet another psychiatrist? I swear, they are like teabags -just one time use! Hm, but if you are careful enough, you can have them for multiple uses! Remember how fast Rung ran to save his sanity …"

* * *

**"… well, well," the jailor smirked, "What do we have here? What, the Elite Guard is too scared of a little, snotty, vandalistic teen?"**

** "I assure you," Star Saber ignored the intense glares from muffled and chained Blades, "He is very dangerous."**

** "Well," mocking the commander, the mech laughed, "If the great Warrior of Luuurve says it then it must be true!"**

** "Pffh! Nggh." Energetically shaking his head as he tried to scream, the captive whimpered. "Ghhh!"**

** "That's right, kid," Braver grinned, teasing the prisoner in cruel amusement, "You were beaten by The Warrior of Love himself!"**

** "Are we done?" The officer crossed his arms. "Our next assignment awaits."**

** "Don't you worry," the warden finally made his way to the hall, "We will take very good care of him."**

** "… pfhehrvehrt …"**

* * *

"… mmm," the General shuttered his optics as the tea hit all the right taste buds, before carefully put the steaming cup down on the table, next to a yellow file in front of him, "Nothing is better than …"

"… a still pumping heart down the fragger's throat." A mech in chains was pushed in, without any regard to proper treatment, as they sat him down and undid the restraints. "You should have seen the idiot's faceplates! And that's how I made it to Santus Prime's scrap list!"

"… ever since then," shouting back at them, the teen waved goodbye, "Every year, pieces of charcoal! Big ones too!"

Still chuckling, the autodog sat properly in his seat, but the smile was wiped straight off his lip components as he saw the tea-drinking officer and stared at him.

This lasted for a while. Blades started silently mouthing all the ways he would kill the officer, as the merry tea drinker patiently meditated, giving the captive a light smile.

"… well," Blades sighed, "This is definitely the new kind of torture …"

* * *

"… **oh, dear," the Affenpinscher gulped, peeking out of the window as the streets flooded with rebel soldiers, "Oh, dear …"**

** "… whaaa! Whaaa," the sparkling cried in his crib, undoing the tight wraps, "Whaaa!"**

** "It's okay, First Aid." Streetwise picked up his little brother and tried to comfort him. "It's gonna be okay! You will see!"**

** "Hot Spot," Groove walked over to his bondmate and closed the curtain, "Maybe they won't …"**

** "What the frag is all this noise?," Blades walked into the living room, rubbing his optics, "Can't a guy get some sleep around here, ever?"**

** "… we better hide." The Komondor gently pulled the veteran away from the window. "Come on …"**

** "What are you guys talking about?," Blades grunted and sneaked a peek outside. "Rebels! Let's go kill them!"**

** "No," the head of the family gulped and headed to the basement, pulling Streetwise with him, "We are going to live through this!"**

** "Screw you, cowards," the Bull Terrier ran into the kitchen, picking up as many sharp objects as he could, "I am -ow, ow! Ow! Ow! Mom! Stop it!"**

** "Come on now," Groove gently pushed his son down the stairs, releasing the sparkling's ear only after they reached the bottom, "There is a lot of hiding to be done!"**

* * *

"… so," getting very bored, very quickly, from the silence and an acute lack of any sort of action, the mech leaned in, squinted and sniffed the air, "You reek of death …"

"I am General Yoketron." The autodog took one last sip and put the cup off to the side, focusing his attention on the teen sitting a few meters in front of him. "Special Forces."

"… but the pleasant smell of authority." Grinning, he energetically got up and started circling the officer, quietly cooing at the hatching escape plan. "Did I ever mention how much I like old people?"

"Hm," humming in amusement, the elder leaned back on the metal chair, following the guy with his optics whenever he could, "Do you like the stories they have to tell?"

"That depends, hehe, what kind of stories do you have to tell me?"

"How about the one where a convict attempts to escape from the highest security prison in the world, by taking a high-ranking officer hostage, and never actually making it through the kidnapping stage?"

"Oh, what, you can read minds now? What, back-flipping, hatchet-throwing attacks and the ability to use chop-sticks was not good enough for you?"

"Call it experience."

"… not to mention your astounding skills of drinking that swill people call tea! I swear, those things turn people into mutants …"

"A story that I do want to tell you," Yoketron sighed and slowly opened the file, "Is a rather sad one."

"Too bad." Stopping right behind him, the Bull Terrier pondered on the lesser details of his plan. "I don't feel like crying today."

"It's a story of a little village that got attacked by rebels around three years ago," whatever little playfulness the General had was completely gone, "Everyone got taken, except for that one sparkling …"

"Not-." The autodog leaped to grab the mech, but before he could do anything else, the prisoner found his faceplates crashing through the table onto the cold floor; arm painfully twisted behind his back and a pede on his neck, ready to break it. "Ghaaa!"

"… that one sparkling," Yoketron didn't even stop, "Who roamed the lands for the past three years to find his family, only ending up getting captured …"

"… sh-shut up," Blades growled, trying to set himself free, "Shut up!"

"… ultimately failing to do anything about it …"

"… shut up …"

"… leaving the boy," the General leaned over a little and carefully ran his digits over a long scar, hidden under the fur of the teen's faceplates, "A vengeful spirit …"

"… shut up," the Bull Terrier wildly buckled, gritting denta through the pain, "SHUT UP!"

* * *

**"… p-please," Hot Spot spread his arms out, trying to defend his family, "Do whatever you want with me but leave my bondmate and sparklings alone!"**

** The Rebel Forces flooded their tiny town and swept the houses for anything useful or edible. Some people thought they would leave them alone if the citizens just gave the intruders whatever they wanted but, unfortunately, that was far from the truth. Even with their cooperation, they outright started grabbing young femmes and mechs, slinging the kidnapped over shoulders like sacks of potatoes as the soldiers dragged them away.**

** "… I don't think you understand how this works," the kittycon grinned, "Colonel."**

** "I am retired," the mech pleaded, "I have nothing to do with this war! I can't fight anyway!"**

** "Oh, believe me," the commander chuckled, lowered his gun and walked over to the Affenpinscher, "I am very well aware of your condition. Problem is, hehe, we already can do whatever we desire with a sorry excuse for a scrap pile like you!"**

** "P-please …"**

** "No, oh, no..." Violently pushing the father off to the side, he gradually started vilely laughing, lustfully eyeing the crying Komondor lowly growling; his arms hugging both a tiny sparkling and a youngling, "I have a better ide…"**

** "DIE," a dark figure shot down from the ceiling onto the soldier's neck and repeatedly, violently, stabbed him, "YOU FRAGGER!**

** "Grargh!" The kittycon grabbed the sparkling by the ears, swung him off and launched him at the opposite wall with full strength. "You little glitch!"**

** "Stay away from my family," yipping from pain, it was quickly kicked off to the side by explosive rage as Blades grabbed a piece of a broken bulk and charged the mech, "Or I will rip off your head!"**

** "Tch," the rebel raised his gun, "Such a wa…"**

** "Ngha," Hot Spot jumped him, wrestling for the gun, "Kiddo, stop!"**

** "Retard." The raider elbowed the father in the faceplates, making him fall to the ground, but just when he was about to shoot, the sparkling leaped again; dug his teeth into the soldier's neck and tore away at the flesh and faceplates. "Aaaargh! Get him off! Get him off!"**

** "What the scrap," a few more rebels made it down to the basement, "Commander!"**

** "Geaaah! Get this scrap off me!"**

** "I got it!" One of them grabbed a shotgun like a baseball bat and slammed it as hard as he could on the kid's head. "Did that do it?"**

** "GHAAAAAA! Frag," feeling the Bull Terrier fall to the ground, the kittycon howled, "Medic! Medic!"**

** "You, you, hunk of junk," the commander screamed in pain as his wounds were treated, staring at the barely conscious Blades, "I will make you suffer for this! Apeface, Snapdragon! We are taking his fragging family to the camp! Leave this slag here, barricade the door and set the house on fire!"**

** "N-no," Hot Spot got up again, barely able to stand any more, "Please! Spare him! Take me! I am more valua…"**

** "T-take me," Groove stood up as well, hiding Streetwise and First Aid behind him, "Take me instead!"**

** "Sweet-heart, no!"**

** "Come on," unceremoniously grabbing the four, the soldiers dragged them outside, screaming for mercy, "Move it!"**

** "And you," getting the medic off, the officer leaned over Blades, taking out a knife, "You, hehehe, even if you manage to survive a burning house …"**

** "… you will," grabbing his head, he ran the tip of the weapon across the sparkling's faceplates, making sure not to cut too deep, "Remember me!"**

** "Now, without further ado..." The kittycon climbed the staires and barricaded the door. "Set this fragger on fire! We are done here!"**

** "… Blades!" A terrified shriek from his mother cut through his haze. "Blades! BLADES …"**

* * *

"… if you calm down," the General didn't even seem to notice that there was a body thrashing under him, "I will tell you of their location."

"You," stopping his chaotic movements, the teen tried to look at him, unable to hide his surprise, "You know where they are?"

"I am the head of Special Operations." Slowly letting go of him, Yoketron walked over to one of the windows, opened it just a tiny bit to let some refreshing winter air in and carefully placed the file on the ledge. "I know a lot of things and recently came across this information."

"Wh-what," standing on his pedes, gaze locked on the elder, the Bull Terrier dropped his jaw, "Where are they? Tell me! W-wait, there is a catch, isn't there?"

"Hold on." Becoming angry again, the autodog quickly scanned for the sharpest piece of wood. "There is no way a fragging General, of the slagging Special Forces, came all the way up here to just hand over info to a teen convict!"

"I assure you," taking a deep intake, he spent an astrosecond to admire the snowflakes, "I do not intend to use you in any way shape or form. In fact, the files for your release are being processed as we speak."

"M-my," widening his optics, the mech froze, "My what now?"

"Allow me to explain …"

"Please fragging do!"

"Your family is located. Our intel confirms that they are alive."

"Why … wait, if it's …"

"Yes, there are many others."

"I am going in only for my family!"

"… hey, you," the warden barged in with ten guards right behind him, "What the frag is the meaning of this?"

"… don't look at me! It's special, old exhaust fume over there!"

"Blades is to be released into my custody." Yoketron grabbed the file and put it into his breast pocket. "I will be escorting him from this point on."

"General," the mech growled, "This scrap heap is a dangerous criminal!"

"I am a dangerous scrap heap!"

"I am quite aware of what he is." The elder slowly nodded. "This matter will be handled appropriately as I see fit."

"Grgh," giving the ex-captive an incinerating glare, which made the autodog mock him back, the warden walked off, "You have ten klicks to get out of my prison!"

"Blades," lightly bowing to the administrator, Yoketron pointed at the exit, "Shall we? I promise I will answer any and all questions you have."

"… fine," rolling his optics, the maniac pouted. "Hated this place anyway; nobody remembered my birthday …"

* * *

** "… aaaaades …"**

** "Ghoa," the screams of his mother shocked through his body, tearing the sparkling out of Unicron's grasp, "Aaaah!"**

** "… no, aaah, no," managing to get up on his pedes, Blades wobbled his way to the basement door, barely able to climb the stairs, "No! Give them back! Give them back!"**

** "You hear me!" He slammed his arms on the wood but the material burned the limbs, making the autodog yip and fall down the stairs. "Give them back you fraggaaaAAAAAH!"**

** The Bull Terrier nearly lost consciousness again from the sheer physical agony, processor exploding in unfathomable fury; everything else, even the pain, faded far into the background. Screaming off the top of his lungs, he grabbed a chainsaw from the tools in the corner and charged upstairs.**

** "Grraaa! Grr," losing balance again at the top, the intense heat on the other side nearly giving the mech a stroke, he collapsed down the stairs, not an astrosecond later, "Aaaaah!"**

** As the sparkling fell, the chainsaw spun a few times in the air and landed on top of a heavy wooden chest, shredding it into pieces.**

** "G-gun," seeing some smooth black object protruding from the box, Blades crawled to it, starting to feel the streams of energon over his face and fur, "Gun!"**

** "Whoa! Perfect!" To his surprise, instead of a rifle, it turned out to be a grenade launcher. Not even thinking about it for another moment, the kid grabbed it and charged the door again. "Out of my way!"**

* * *

"… thank you," Yoketron helped the waitress put down their plates and smiled back at her, "Moonracer."

"Enjoy," the femme chirped, giggling at Blades. "It's on the house!"

"… this, this..." The mech drooled like a waterfall, as the heavenly, meaty fragrance of the meatball pasta made his spark sing joyful tunes of euphoria. "This …"

"This," the General chucked, "Is all …"

"… yours. Oh, dear," he didn't even get to finish his sentence as the teen, with an audio-shearing howl viciously, assaulted the meal; hungry growls, loud moans and groans of satisfaction quickly filled up the whole pub, while tears of happiness flowed like rivers down the dented cheekplates, the existence of a fork completely forgotten as the autodog splattered bits of the food all over the place, "Oh, my!"

"Aw, he is adorable," Moonracer cooed, leaning on the table. "Where did you find this little cutie?"

"You wouldn't believe it." The special operations leader picked up another clean napkin. "In the highest security prison in the world."

"In that case, hey," seeing how the Bull Terrier finished the plate and was currently sucked his digits clean, she pinched him on the cheek, "How about I get cooking on more meatball pasta, hm?"

"… you, you," Blades looked at her with the biggest, puppy optics the waitress ever saw and leaped at the femme, hugging her by the waist, "I LOVE YOU!"

"… oh, my …"

"… you are paying for this one, Yoky."

"… oh, dear!"

* * *

**"… m… mo… mom." The sparkling made a few limping steps out of the devastated building, feeling nothing -as if his emotions nor his body existed, the winter air slowly bringing back sensation. "M-mom …"**

** To say that the village was destroyed would be a grotesque understatement; the rebels left nothing but burning ruins, scattered corpses and a heavy layering of snow, soaked in energon.**

** "M-mom, dad, First Aid..." Suddenly whatever little strength he had, left; not just his pedes gave out but the whole being gradually crashed onto the ground, unable to move a single micrometer. "Str-tree-treetw-wise …"**

** In a matter of astroseconds, everything slowly started fading into a symphony of agony, chilling cold reclaiming his spark in the name of Unicron.**

* * *

"… phoo," Blades leaned back on the creaking chair after eating the dozenth plate, the size of his belly making him look like he was sparked, "Holy slag …"

"… all right, boys," Moonracer collected the winning bets and happily stored them in her breast pocket, "Show's over!"

"… aw, mech …"

"… I lost again!"

"… you always lose at gambling!"

"… at least I am not as bad as you at flirting!"

"… you couldn't flirt with a trash can!"

"… flirted with your mom!"

"So," Yoketron merrily sighed, and leaned in, "How are y…"

"Burp." A piece of a meatball flew out of his mouth and landed right in front of the General. "You gonna eat that?"

"… um …"

"Wanna split it?"

"… you can have it. Anyway," giving him another klick, the officer got back to the topic at hand, "I assume you have questions?"

"Yeah," he smirked, "What's for desert?"

"… oh, my …"

* * *

** "… ngh," slowly onlining his optics, Blades groaned, "Gha …"**

** "Easy there..." Someone came over and changed the wet towel on his forehead. "You are safe."**

** "… m-mom?" His vision was too blurry to make out anything but the very basic colors of white and bits of red. "D-dad?"**

** "I'm sorry, kid." Blades felt the stranger check his pulse. "You were the only one left. Hm, a little low …"**

** "Fir-irst, haa, Aid," clutching their arm, he desperately tried to stay online, "St-treet-eetwi-ise?"**

** "Easy, easy," gently pushing the sparkling down, the white shape petted him, "Rest, you will be fine."**

** "… i-it, ngh, hurts! Aaah," dull pain drilled through the little body, making every hazy astrosecond a time warp of agony, "Aaaah! It hur-huuuur-hurts!"**

** "D-don't move so much! Scrap!" The sharp sensation of a needle cut through his limb. "I need to redress the bandages!"**

** "… Stree…," blacking out again, the whole world disappeared into darkness, "eetwise …"**

* * *

"… um," the mech raised his servo to call the waitress, "I suppose we can spend a little more time on dese…"

"No, no..." Grabbing the officer by the servo and dragging him closer, Blades looked him in the optics, with amusement, anticipation and murder swirling, mixing inside. "You didn't understand my question so let me rephrase it …"

"What. Fraggers. Do. I. Kill," rage seeped into the already storming processor, "To get to my family?"

"Let us," the General scanned the room before getting up, "Retreat somewhere more private."

"Lead the way! Wait." The Bull Terrier raised his servo and stared into space for a klik, before burping so loud, that, yet again, the attention of the whole bar was centered on the two. "Phew! I was afraid I'd have to throw up!"

"…uh-huh." The autodog blinked. "Fabulous …"

* * *

**"… look to the right," the white mech inspected his optic sensor, "Now look to the left. Good."**

** "Are you done?" The kid tried not to move his faceplates too much. "I have to go back!"**

** "For the last time," he grumbled, putting away the tools, "There is literally nothing to go back to! The whole place is destroyed!"**

** "They," gulping, the pup did his best to keep calm, "They took my family."**

** "See, another reason not to go to that place."**

** "But I can try to track them!"**

** "Even if you do find them, how are you going to take down a few dozen soldiers, kid?"**

** "… I-I …"**

** "Urgh, I am so going to regret this. Fine," rubbing his sinuses, the doctor sighed. "Once you are capable of traveling safely, without undoing any of the stitching, I will take you there. Deal? That will hopefully be tomorrow.**

** "… gr," lowly growling, the sparkling grimly looked at the healer, "Deal …"**

* * *

"… after the village was ransacked," Yoketron laid out the photos one by one, with the corresponding reports, "We only got random sightings of its previous inhabitants; nothing solid until just a couple of days ago …"

"You mean to tell me," the autodog malevolently squinted, "That it took you people years to find a whole village population?"

"Well, you know," the General glared at him for an astrosecond before rolling his optics a few times, "With all the intel we need to get on the rebel forces, attack plans, evacuation procedures, training, recruitment, operations outside of normal command chain, we do tend to get our servos a little full, you know? Just a tiny bit. Oh, and let's not forget that there is this little thing called a war going on?"

"Sounds like you guys are just a bunch of lazy bastards."

"… do you want your family back or not?"

"… aft …"

"This picture," the mech slid it over the table, showing a huge crowd of people huddled in a truck cargo hold, with Groove trying to comfort a sparkling of about three years old, "Was taken just a few days ago in the Nebulos region."

"M-mom!" Blades grabbed the picture, nearly tearing it into pieces as he closely inspected it. "And, who- oh, Primus! It's First Aid!"

"He has indeed grown."

"B-but," the teen desperately looked at the General, trying not to choke on his whimpers, "Wh-where are dad and Str-treetwi-wise?"

"This is," Yoketron paused and gulped, giving him a datapad, "Where I am going to let you read the report yourself."

* * *

"**I am surprised," the white mech checked Blades' dressing before helping the sparkling put on a warm coat, "To be honest."**

** "At what?," the pre-teen tried not to growl. "That I didn't murder you in your sleep?"**

** "Among other things." Resisting an urge to smack the kid on the back of his head, the autodog zipped him up. "You didn't do the stupid thing and run away."**

** "Do I look stupid to you?"**

** "You looked very banged up. Anyway, are you ready?"**

** "Yeah," he gave a determined nod, heading to the door, "I am."**

* * *

"… th-they are …"

"… in a concentration camp."

"B-but they are alive, right? Right?"

"Yes," the autodog nodded with a sigh. "They are currently transporting more prisoners there, including Groove and First Aid."

"Where is it?" He clenched the arm of his chair hard, making the wood crack. "Where is it?"

"On the coast." Taking out a map and pointing at the beach curves, Yoketron traced his digit to their present location. "Among the cliffs. Took us a long time to …"

"… where do you think," the General looked at the Bull Terrier, slightly baffled, as Blades jumped to his pedes, "You are going?"

"To get them out of there, duh!"

"We need a plan!"

"I have a plan! It's the flawless Kill-Every-Fragger-That-Gets-In-My-Way strategy. Came up with it myself!"

"If you are just a little more patient," he straightened up and gazed at the teen with stern optics, "I will ensure that this mission is a success."

"It already is a success," getting into his faceplates, Blades growled, "I am on this!"

"We will need to get the rest of the people out of there."

"Whoa, whoa," he backed off, throwing his servos in the air, "I am not busting my aft for those spikewads!"

"And how are you going to get your family out," the officer didn't even blink, "Hm? I assume you have a plan of escape already thought out?"

"… I will think of something!"

"While you are still thinking of that something, I have already devised a plan to get everyone out."

"… why should I? I don't remember making any deals with you!"

"Blades," Yoketron took a deep breath to calm down, "I am asking you for help. I am not ordering you, I a not telling you, I am not threatening you, I am not …"

"Fine, fine, just shut up, sheesh! So," crossing his arms and lowly growling, the mech gritted his denta, "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning? Are you," the Bull Terrier's optics glinted with murder, "Are you crazy?"

"Um," raising a brow ridge at him, the General slowly continued, "That's when all the equipment I requested will be delivered."

"When are your buddies gonna come?"

"My..." Pausing for a moment, the autodog looked at his partner, confused. "Pardon, what?"

"The rest of the special forces people -when are they coming?"

"Um," Yoketron widened his optics, "Did I not tell you? It will be just you and me."

"Just the," taking a few astroseconds to process this, the teen coughed, "Um, what?"

"This mission is outside of Elite Guard jurisdiction." He walked over to the window. "The high command does not know about this."

"So, hold on," feeling a need to sit down, Blades pulled a chair in, "Outside of jurisdiction? What's going on here?"

"You see," the officer resumed after a silence, recollecting his thoughts, "There have been a number of, hm, events, incidents, happenings that normally wouldn't be looked too deep into. However …"

"There is more to it than meets the optic, eh?"

"Indeed. Take, for one, General Stingray suddenly breaking off from the rebel forces. We were lead to believe that he went insane but I have dealt with Stingray before but this is really out of his character. Even the shootings by the Elite Guard that started the rebellion; the situation was supposedly that high ranking officers in the Elite Guard abused their power."

"… what was it really?"

"They were supposedly tipped about terrorist activity from an anonymous source. I do not know what and if they recovered anything but the convoy which carried contents classified as top secret was destroyed. It was masked as retaliation from the kittycon population, but after having assessed the damage myself, there was no way they would be capable of obtaining such grade of weapons, let alone have the training to use tactics that would annihilate an Elite Guard commando unit."

"So, wait, this was a set up?"

"More like an attempt to hide something."

"All right, I will buy that. Not that I give a scrap but, um," the autodog leaned in, "How exactly is this related to my family?"

"After doing a little more, hm, research, I started a little pet project: a full analysis of the war and the events that lead to it."

"… my little project was to get a booger out of my nose …"

"… uh-huh. Anyway, the deeper I dug, more, hm, strange things, I have encountered; information and facts did not add up, reports and records contradicted each other, numbers and statistics made no sense. Eventually I got to a point where I started connecting the dots and so far what I am uncovering is very troubling."

"What are you uncovering," Blades shifted in his seat for comfort, "Detective Boring? A conspiracy?"

"Oh," sighing, the mech looked at the sunset, "I hope it is just me getting old and senile; people have suffered more than enough. Moving right along. One of the things I came to notice is the population changes. Entire villages go missing – no records, no bodies, nothing. They just disappear without a trace. Such instances grew in greater frequency after the war started. This is where the camps come in …"

"… they round off people to camps and, what," the Bull Terrier crossed his arms, "Make them go poof? Why?"

"I do not know," Yoketron responded after a few astroseconds, clenching his fists, "But I intend to find out."

"I see...," Blades broke the silence. "So exactly why aren't you involving the high command?"

"Simple," the General chuckled and spread out his arms, "I don't have enough proof to authorize an investigation – there is a possibility that I am chasing wild trubo-geese."

"All right," shrugging, the mech groaned, "So what's the plan?"

"Sleep." Yoketron gave the outside one last glance. "We will need all of our energy tomorrow."

* * *

**He was right, there was barely anything to come back to.**

** "… don't be too long," the young healer grumbled, "This is not exactly a safe area."**

** Completely ignoring him, Blades gulped, took a deep breath and slowly walked among the burned down ruins, brushing his servos on what once was his happy home:**

** "… this is where …"**

** "I know."**

** "… and," noticing a huge patch of pink snow, the pre-teen shivered, recognizing it, "And that's where you found me."**

** "Yeah," the mech sighed. "You lost a lot of energon, barely breathing, almost no pulse."**

** "Wh-where," looking around, the Bull Terrier paused uncertainly, "Where are the bodies? Did they come back and take the dead?"**

** "No," he pointed to the top of a little hill, "After stabilizing you I came back and buried them."**

** "I-I see."**

** "So what are you going to do," the white autodog crossed his arms and gazed at his patient, "Go in pursuit?"**

** "I am not stupid." Blades was barely able to keep calm, pain reminding him of the stitches. "I can't attack them when I can't even grin without bleeding like a glitch out of my face."**

** "So you are really going to go through with this?"**

** "If you were in my situation," the kid glared, "What would you do? Abandon your family altogether? Probably means you never loved them."**

** "Why, you-," the mech stopped himself, counted to five and calmed down. "Are you done?"**

** "Yeah," Blades gave his home one last glance before turning around, "I am done."**

* * *

They were alive. Mom, dad, First Aid and Streetwise... all of them! He couldn't wait to hug his parents, see just how much First Aid has grown and to hug Streetwise, giving him a passionate ki…

"Calm down," the teen took a few deep intakes as rage and frustration started to quickly fill up his spark, kicking the blanket off, "Calm down."

Three years, twelve seasons, thirty six months, one thousand ninety five days -all of them felt like a slap on the face for his failure; double for every cycle that he wasn't getting anywhere near saving his family.

"… mnghr," groaning, the Bull Terrier shifted on his side, looking at Yoketron sleeping in the bed on the other side of the room, "Ghn …"

Then this General comes out of nowhere and just oh so randomly busts him out of prison, not only feeding the ex-convict but also providing location of his family, casually, like it was no big deal.

"… mnghr," unable to find a comfortable enough position, the mech kept moving around in berth, "Fhrt …"

"Go to sleep," Yoketron yawned.

"… but the bed is too soft!"

"… that's a unique complaint. Then sleep on the floor."

"… but …"

"Go to sleep or I will bore you to death with military analysis and the thousands of stories I have."

"… fine," Blades grumbled, making himself comfy, falling asleep in astroseconds. "Aft …"

* * *

** "… monster!"**

** "… he is a monster!"**

** "… go back to where you came from, fugly monster!"**

** "… go die," the sparkling threw another rock at the fleeing bullies, "And stay there!"**

** "Aah," his older brother yipped, trying to make the bleeding on his pede stop, "Pfhn! Heh, thanks, Blades."**

** "Are you okay?" The pup rushed to his sibling, shivering from fright. "Are you okay? Please tell me you are gonna be okay! You need me to do anything? I will do anything! I …"**

** "Relax, relax," chuckling, interrupted a little by hissing, the Akita extended his arm, "H-help me up?"**

** "Sure thing, sure thing! Um," still nervous as frag, the mech gulped and with utmost care, lead his brother to their house, "Uh, how are you feeling? Um, d-do you want me so sing a song or …"**

** "Haha," Streetwise giggled as he took out the keys, "You are so adorable! Don't worry so much, you will get wrinkles!"**

** "S-sorry," the sparkling blushed a little, helped the autodog onto a chair; grabbing a little medkit before he sat down and carefully placed his brother's pede in his lap, "Disinfecting m-may sting a little …"**

** "That's all right." He warmly smiled at him. "I know you will get the job done."**

** "H-here it goes …."**

** "… easy," the Akita hissed at the pain, "Don't press so hard!"**

** "I-I am sorry!" The mech tore away. "I am so sorry!"**

** "Blades," the older brother grabbed him by the chin and looked in the optics, trying to hold back cooing at the cute, tearing-up faceplates, "Will you stop worrying so much? I am tough, you know."**

** "R-right, right..." Gulping and nodding, the kid nervously smiled, starting to bandage the wound. "I-I j-ju-just g-got scared th-that y-you we-were hurt 'nd a-all …"**

** "I know, but," Streetwise leaned back a little, relaxing, "I feel very safe with you."**

** "Y-you," the sparkling's optics widened, jaw dropping a bit, "You do?"**

** "Ah," testing the dressing and satisfied with the results, he grabbed Blades' servo and gently squeezed it, "Well, yeah! They shouldn't call you a monster because you are not a monster!"**

** "… b-but," the mech jittered a little, feeling a wave of tears coming, "I-I g-get s-so an-angry a-and hu-hurt p-pe-people …"**

** "Everyone has flaws," the autodog moved closer, almost face-to-face with his sibling, "But your strengths are the things that define you."**

** "M-m-my," the pre-teen looked at him with surprise, unknowingly drawing closer, "Strengths?"**

** "You are so kind, fun, cute," with every word coming out of Streetwise's mouth, Blades blushed more and more, "And more importantly, you are very caring and lo…"**

** Before he could even finish, the Bull Terrier locked their lips in a heated kiss, grasping his chestplates:**

** "I, I," breaking away, starting to panic again, he was about to step back, "I am sor…"**

** "I am not done, mister! You are cute, caring and," wrapping his arms around his neck, Streetwise kissed him back, "Mmm, loving …"**

* * *

"… ngrr," Blades scowled as he suddenly woke up and quickly got off the floor, "Slagging, ghr! Should have seen that dumbaft psychiatrist …"

What the frag did he ever do to deserve a life like this? How exactly was any of this fair? Scrap like this made it hard to believe Primus was out there, "looking out" for them, as the religious folk say.

He actually encountered a preacher, trying to spread his beliefs. The fragger ended up ranting about how all his "troubles" were insignificant, all of this Ick-Yak slag was a test and the teen should leave it in the servos of Primus. Where is that priest now? According to his own beliefs probably getting digested inside of Unicron or something.

"Hehe, holy exhaust fumes," chuckling at the joke, the autodog walked to the window, opened it up and leaned on the ledge, "I crack myse…"

"… now," the mech noticed the General talking to someone, "What is this? A hooded secret? Hm, that would good on me, I should probably get one too …"

Grabbing a set of sniper lenses he stole off one of the mercenaries in the pub yesterday, the Bull Terrier tried to see whom exactly the officer was conversing with, but either there was not enough light or the stranger's fur was pitch black; only a red visor glinting from the darkness of their hood.

"Hrm," suddenly registering subtle movement on the rocky terrain, the teen carefully scanned the area, noticing someone in a rugged white and gray camouflage crawling through the brush. Their clothes were torn in random places, large enough to show the golden yellow fur beneath; faceplates concealed by a weird, very high-tech looking helmet with enhanced optic sensors, "And who are you?"

Deciding to see how this played out, he didn't move a muscle but patiently watched as they sneaked closer to Yoketron and his friend, listening in on the conversation.

"Either someone is not telling me the whole truth," a sudden burst of wind made the cloak flap upwards a tad, revealing a sizable sniper rifle which the spy slowly pulled out. Quickly tensing up, he seriously thought to warn the General, "Or someone knows too much …"

"Room servi…"

"Aaaaah!" Nearly jumping out of the window from the sudden announcement, the ex-convict thought he would get an energon-pump attack. "Unholy Unicron's remains! Ever heard of knocking?"

"… b-but," starting to tear up, a young kittycon femme gasped, "I-I d-did kn-knock b-but y-you we-weren't re-respon-ponding a-and I-I wa-wasn't su-sure i-if y-you w-wer-re all ri-right s-so I-I ju-just wa-want-ted t-to ch-che-eck o-on y-you …"

"Uh, no, no," quickly walking up to her, processor still whirling, the mech chuckled self-consciously, "I-I am s-sorry for ye-yelling I wasn't paying attention a-and …"

"Oh, scrap! Oldie," rushing back to the window, the autodog screamed, "There is an assassin in the rocks!"

"Wh-wha'," widening his optics at the empty area, Blades hectically scanned it, "Where …"

"Who are you yelling at?" The General's voice came from behind him. "Are you tryi…"

"Holy Primus' pogo stick!" Almost leaping from the fourth floor again, the Bull Terrier grasped his chestplates as he turned around. "Has anyone here heard of knocking?!"

"… I did knock …"

"Audible knocking!"

"Blades," the officer nodded at the sniffling employee, "Calm down, please?"

"Ghrghr," steaming like crazy on the inside, he pouted and looked off to the side, "I am sorry for scaring you."

"Nightbird, dear," the elder turned to the maid, "Do you think it would be possible for you to forgive him?"

"I-I-I," taking out a napkin and quickly whipping off the tears, she did her best to calm down, "I ac-acce-cept y-your ap-pology; I-I am s-so-sorry t-too …"

"… nonsense," Yoketron smiled. "You were simply worried about the safety of the respected customer."

"Eheheh," blushing like crazy, the femme bowed and hurried out, "Th-tha-thank you! I-I am s-sorry a-again! Please, h-have a g-good day!"

"So," making sure they could not be heard, the mech put a sizable bag down and turned to his partner, "What was that about an assassin?"

"… well …"

* * *

**"… all done." The healer put away his stethoscope and sighed with relief. "I am giving you the clean bill of health."**

** "Thanks," Blades said flatly and walked over to the sink, washing his faceplates. "I really do appreciate it."**

** "I know, hehe, maybe one day you will return the favor," grimly chuckling, the white autodog shook his head. "Yeah, right. Anyway, what are you going to do now?"**

** "I, will, yeah," looking himself in the mirror, the pre-teen squeezed the sides of the already breaking counter, "I will go and find my family."**

** "Don't get yourself killed."**

** "You should be more worried about those who get in my way."**

** "Um," breaking the awkward silence, Blades faced him, "You never told me your name."**

** "You never asked."**

** "I am asking you now."**

** "Well," the Labrador's irritation seeped into the air, "I don't have a name."**

** "Wh-what," the Bull Terrier blinked a few times, "What do you mean?"**

** "I chose to call myself nothing."**

** "Why?"**

** "Because this," pointing to his bag and the medical waste, getting louder with every passing moment, "this is medicine! It has no enemies, no allies, it exists to help everyone! Names and titles should carry no weight! There is a point! A point that anyone can help anyone! Kittycon, autodog, insectipuma, autowolf, Elite Guard, Rebel, civilian!"**

** "I, I am," clenching his fists, the mech shuttered his optics, lowering his tone, "I am sorry, I didn't mean to …"**

** "I know," nodding, the pre-teen sighed, "Whatever happens, I wish you luck."**

** "Same, kid." Waving him goodbye, the healer sighed, turning back to his tools. "Same."**

* * *

"… yellow fur?"

"That is correct."

"Hm," if Yoketron didn't look serious before, now every fiber of his body was focused, "All right, I will make note of that. Go get breakfast, I will prepare the gear."

"Did you want anything?"

"No, I already ate."

"Fine," Blades nodded goodbye and left, "I will see you in a few klicks."

"Indeed."

"Soundblaster," the General activated a commlink, "I need to talk to Kup. Yes, please participate too. This is regarding this Unicron character …"

* * *

**Nothing; for seven weeks the bull terrier has been searching, asking around, scouting, spying and still found zilch! Not even a freaking peep on the radar! It's like they all disappeared into thin air.**

** "Grr," chewing away at the petro-beef jerky he stole from an overly greedy merchant, the autodog climbed another hill overlooking the vast lands of Cybertron, "Needle in a haystack?"**

** "Simple," securing his knives, the pre-teen grimly descended, eating the last of his birthday treat, "Burn the hay; dig for needle."**

* * *

"… so," glaring at the officer, Blades raised his optic ridge, "You just bought this off the Internet?"

"Essentially." Yoketron patted the amphibious vehicle, "It is also a submarine."

"… wha…." Mind lagging from the sheer amount of questions, the teen had no fragging clue where to even start. "Ho… whe… huh?"

"Don't worry." Chuckling, the mech took a deep intake of the marvelous winter air and spent a few astroseconds admiring the rising sun over the rocky area. "I had her for years now!"

"… uh … mm … eh … wha…"

"So many fond memories with Puddle." Lovingly brushing his servos over the name, he sadly smiled, longingly looking at the letters for short couple of moments before turning to the still frozen autodog. "Aye, mate! I be sailing the eleven seas with goo' ol' Puddle! Trusty ship she is!"

"So, hold on, wait," he tapped his head a few times before outright smacking himself on the cheekplates, "Wait, wait, wait! You mean to tell me that ..."

"Yes."

"… and that …"

"Indeed."

"… and also …"

"That is quite correct, Blades."

" Can you," the teen gazed at him with shock and awe, "is there anything you can't get?"

"There is one thing I cannot get," the General laughed, starting to change into a wetsuit, "Indeed."

"Just one?"

"Just one."

"What is it?"

"I can't get an overly violent companion to stop being overly violent," zipping up, the mech tried to contain his amusement, "And start being courteous to a sweet maid with a crush on him."

"Pfhahaha, wait," suddenly realizing what he just said, Blades dropped his jaw and pointed at himself, "Nightbird has a crush on me?"

"You should have seen how much you made her blush when I talked to her before we left! In fact," reaching into one of the pockets of the carefully folded jacket, the elder took out a tiny servo-crafted, sun-shaped wooden talisman, "She asked me to give you this!"

"Uh," reaching out on reflex, the autodog dropped his jaw, closely inspecting the little gift, "Wh… wha…"

"May the sun light your path and its warmth give you strength," Yoketron merrily chuckled, "She said. Sounds like you already have an admirer! Anyway, let us go?"

"R-right..." Mulling a little more, the teen secured it in one of the suit pockets and hurriedly changed. "How long will it take us?"

"The trip won't be too long," Yoketron jumped inside and started the systems, "We should be there by sunset which will be in five cycles. Shortest day of the year, imagine that!"

"Okay." Nodding, Blades climbed aboard. "Is there a berth? I think I could use a little more recharge."

"Go ahead," showing his partner the surprisingly spacious back section, he rushed over to the little shelf built into the wall and locked it up, chuckling, "Hopefully this berth is not too comfortable for you."

"Oh, can it," the mech smirked back and laid down, widely yawning. "Oh, yeah, mmm, that's the stuff."

"Good to know," Yoketron smiled and headed to the controls, closing the door behind him. "Rest up."

"Will do." The bull terrier shuttered his optics. "Hm, what kind of a name is Puddle …"

* * *

**Sparkling First Aid was coming! Dad got mom to the nearest medical facility and now it was only a matter of time until their little family got another member. Right now, the doctors were determining some details and doing random tests. Streetwise and Blades were so interested in those that the staff actually asked them to go out in the hall, leaving Hot Spot in charge:**

** "Don't worry," the ex-soldier carefully knelt down and patted the two on the shoulder, "Mom will be perfectly fine and in just a couple of cycles, you will have an itty-bitty brother!"**

** "Yeepee," Streetwise clapped his servos, "I am going to love him so much! We will have parties and we will play lots and …"**

** "Excuse me," one of the nurses came over with a clipboard, "Mister Hot Spot Protectobot?"**

** "Yes," the Affenpinscher lightly groaned as he stood up and grabbed his cane. "That would be me. How may I be of service?"**

** "I am afraid there have been some problems retrieving your health history," the mech pointed down the hallway, "If you would come with me to fill in some blanks and resolve this issue, we will be able to keep providing healthcare services for you."**

** "I see. I shall be right there." Nodding, the father turned to his kids. "Are you two going to be all right?"**

** "Yeah," the Akita smiled, "We will just wonder around for a little while and come back! We wouldn't miss this for the world!"**

** "All right then," petting Blades, the dad chuckled and proceeded to the office, "Stay safe, I will be done as soon as I can."**

** "So," the bull terrier and his sibling walked to the exit and came out into the cool autumn warmth; the last of the leaves forming a beautiful carpet for the ground, "Excited, huh?"**

** He really did not know how to feel about this. On one servo, the autodog was happy that there would be one more person to love him and not call him all sorts of names. On the other servo, the pup was starting to get jealous.**

** "Oh, yeah," Streetwise merrily sighed, skipping down the road and twirling in the flying leaves, "I really am! Imagine how much more fun we will have!"**

** "… yeah," Blades paused, kicking a rock, "Fun."**

** It had been almost a year now since that time they kissed; they shared kisses frequently since then, among certain other things kept in secret from their parents, but beyond that they, never actually went all the way. The decision had been to save it up for a special occasion, which now seemed to be floating further away with the coming sparkling.**

** "Hey," noticing his mood, the Akita slowly came up to him, "A-are you all right?"**

** "Yeah," the mech frowned, "perfect."**

** "Blades …"**

** "I am fine."**

** "… Blades …"**

** "I said I am ok!"**

** "Blades." Streetwise sternly looked at the brother. "Talk to me!"**

** "Well, uh, yeah," the pre-teen gulped, "You are, like, um, gonna love First Aid more than me?"**

** "What? What? Huh? Wh-what," he froze in place, "What are you talking about?"**

** "You are all going on about how YOU are gonna have so much fun with him," starting to sniffle, the autodog turned around, "What about me? Wh-who, who will have fu…"**

** The mech didn't get a chance to finish his sentence; the Akita swung him around and locked their lip components in a heated kiss:**

** "I will have even more fun with you!"**

** "O-o-oh yeah?" Weakly pushing away as the tiny optics filled with tears, the bull terrier held back whimpers. "H-how do you figure?"**

** "Because," gently dragging him behind the tree line and into the still lush bushes, Streetwise pulled Blades down, "I love you."**

** "Wh-wha…"**

** "Hehe," the teen giggled, "That's a response I wanna hear!"**

** "N-no! I-I do!" Slamming their mouths together, the kid could barely breathe. "I l-lo-love y-you too!"**

** "W-would you," Streetwise slowly unzipped his pants as his face flushed, pulling back his codpiece and revealing the lubricating valve, "W-would you, c-co-connect, with, um, me?"**

** "Th-there," brushing his servo by the brother's cheekplates, Blades warmly smiled, looking deep into the kind, nurturing optics, "There is nobody else I would connect with …"**

* * *

"… GHAAAaaah!" Waking up in a cold sweat, the teen grabbed a railing and squeezed the frag out of it, trying to stop his energon-pump from bumping so hard that he could feel the violent throbs. "Slag, slag, graaargh!"

"What happened," Yoketron bolted inside, "Are we drowning again?"

"Gh, no, wait," dropping his jaw, the teen nearly screamed, "What do you mean, again?"

"Nothing, nothing." Quickly waving the bull terrier off, he inspected the ex-convict. "So, what happened? You screamed?"

"Oh, phoo," rubbing his sinuses, Blades cleared his throat, "No, just …"

"Bad dream?"

"Y-you c-could say that."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Thanks, I guess."

"We will be arriving within the cycle," the General sighed and rushed back to the controls, "Try to get some more sleep."

"N-no, that's, um," Blades wiped the sweat off his faceplates and joined the elder, "That's all right; I wouldn't be able to close my optics without seeing, eh, another …"

"Nightmare?"

"Yeah. Anyway," attempting to kick the images out, the teen looked outside, "Oh wow, you weren't lying! This really can be a submarine!"

"But of course." Yoketron pointed to the surface. "But we can't go too deep; she wasn't made to go below fifty meters under."

"She?"

"Yeah," the autodog proudly patted the steering wheel, "Puddle's a she."

"Let me guess," stroking his chin like he saw some detectives in cartoons do, Blades sneered, "There is a long-aft story behind this ship and it is boring as frag?"

"Hehe," the mech sadly sighed after letting out a chuckle, "Guilty as charged."

"If it's okay with you, I want to hear it one day."

"Oh? Are you sure you could handle the boring?"

"I spent a good year in prison listening to the warden and the guards talk about their little girls going into ballet, their boys scoring a goal in Charrball, wives knowing nothing but how to get pregnant and themselves whining about the five-star jail. Try me."

"Do not poke the story, it will poke you back."

"Pfha, what's it gonna do, bore me to death? No, no, gonna get my family out, ahem, with, others, of course, and then, I don't know, move to Crystal City or something."

"If that is what you wish."

"I, myself, will probably stay."

"That sou… wait, what?"

"I, um, I want to find someone."

"Do you have a name?"

"No, he doesn't have one."

"That is, heh, that is strange, no?"

"He chose not to have one because of some stupid idea that everyone can be helping everyone mumbo-jumbo, I don't know, I wasn't listening."

"I see."

"You, actually, surprised me."

"Really? How so?"

"I thought you would, I don't know, try to recruit me or something."

"If you were to join, I would want it to be your choice with as little pressure from me as possible. You can think of this as an elderly mech who is trying to make himself feel better by helping others so much."

"Selfish bastard."

"Exactly."

"I don't think that's the case with you."

"You don't?"

"I saw egotism in its raw forms one too many times to mistaken it for anything else." The teen blushed a tiny bit. "You are anything but."

"Well, I am, heh, very glad to hear you think of me so highly."

"… and you smell weird."

"Ah, yes, the old people smell, haha, what a …"

"No, that's not what I meant."

"Wh-what," the General shot him a glance, "What did you mean?"

"You and me are a lot alike." Grinning Blades, squinted in delight. "You reek of vengeance and wrath. Heh, you are probably thinking it to be this thing people seem to have called pride and honor."

"One day," Yoketron burst out laughing after a klick-long silence, "I will tell you the whole story."

"It better have a deliciously gory ending to it."

"I do not know about gory," the General slowly smiled, "But I, too, am interested how it finishes."

"Oh, look at that." The map beeped. "We are finally here!"

"Let's resurface?"

"No," mischievously smirking, the mech pinched Blades' wetsuit, "Why do you think we got these?"

"Oh, no, dude, it's winter! The water is cold as frag!"

"You are not afraid of a battalion of Rebel soldiers but you are suddenly being a little chickety-chic about a bit of cool water?"

"… yes! So, um," following him, the teen put on the breathing mask, "How do we do this? Is there a smaller, like, mini submarine or …"

"Nope," the General quickly opened a hatch leading straight into the water and pushed Blades inside, "Down you go!"

"AAAAAH!"

"Dude," barely containing his laughter, Yoketron gestured, "You, like, need to, like, chill, 'n' stuff!"

"I WILL FRAGGING KILL YOU!"

"… peace out!"

* * *

Hot Spot used to watch the sunsets with Groove, leaning on the ledge of the window; reminiscing their youth and fantasizing about the next day, with a bottle of high-grade mellowing it out even further. Sometimes, Streetwise would walk in for a hug or to tell the two how much he loves them. Other times, Blades would walk in with another scratch or a booboo after getting into yet another fight. When First Aid joined their family, the sparkling would cry out for snuggling or to be fed, which the adults never refused, lovingly nurturing the tiny mech to keep growing.

Now?

Now they brought nothing but pain. The veteran lived through a lot but not even being left for dead in the heart of enemy territory could compare to this. Torn away from his bondmate and First Aid, every day filled the Affenpinscher with just that much more hate. The only two who gave him any hope whatsoever was Streetwise and …

"… open the gates." A guard at the bigger entrance signaled the outpost. "We got another load!"

"Huh." Putting down the pickaxe and leaning on it, the tired adult tried to catch his breath. "Oh, sweet Primus …"

Every few days, those monsters would bring in more people, no matter what race they were, be it autodog, kittycon; frag, they even managed to capture the insectipumas and autowolfs!

"… come on, get out you filth." One of the officers took a whip and cracked it aimlessly inside the truck, "Get out! We don't have all day! Move it! I said move it!"

One by one, they exited or were dragged out, in chains; dirty, hungry, weak, unable to afford to even hope for salvation. He saw this many times. More would come, then some would be forced on another truck with a strange scorpion tail drawn on it and taken off somewhere, never to be seen again.

"D-don't hit my son," the veteran suddenly heard a voice so preciously familiar, "Please! He has done nothing wrong!"

"Frag off, whore." The mech spat into Groove's faceplates and back-handed the scared three year-old. "Stay in the dirt with the slag where you all belong!"

"Ghrr," Hot Spot was about to charge the fragger but the chain yanked him on the pede, "Scrap!"

At least they were alive! At least …

"Ghaa," getting shocked by one of the guards, Hot Spot nearly lost his consciousness, "Aaah!"

"Get back to work! We are not letting you live for nothing! You should be thankful you are still online!"

"Ghoa," summoning the strength to get up and keep swinging the stupid mining tool, Hot Spot groaned from the sharp joint pain, "Ghaaa …"

At least they are alive.

* * *

Two shadows silently sneaked …

"… you are an aft!"

"It was just a little bit of cold water."

"Oh, yeah, an ocean, that's a little bit of cold water! Yeah, I will remember that next time I am giving you a stabbing by dumping your body into a 'little bit of cold water'!"

Two shadows not so silently sneaked among the rocks of the cold beach, making sure to stay out of the light of the sentry towers.

This was it; this was the day when Blades would be reunited with his family after all these abhorrent years! The bull terrier couldn't stop shaking with excitement, despite how hard he tried to stay focused and keep the celebrations for after making sure that everyone was safe.

"Wait," Yoketron pointed at the gates, "Look!"

A large truck, with huge, empty cage attachments, slowly rolled out of the camp and drove up the hills, away from the ocean line.

"Let's wait a little." The General gave the teen a sniper lens. "The button at the bottom activates the night vision. We are going to play a little game called 'Spot-Their-Blind-Spot' …"

* * *

"Groove, First Aid," the mech limped over to his bondmate and sparkling, "Over here!"

"Hot Spot," the Komodor broke into tears of joy, bombarding the autodog's faceplates in kisses, "Oh, Primus, Hot Spot!"

"Come on." Quickly grabbing both by their servos, the veteran led them to his tent. "We could get in trouble if we are on the open."

"Y-you are alive! I-I am so happy! I-is," Groove anxiously looked around the surprisingly spacious tent, "Where is Streetwise?"

"That's, um," falling into a short painful silence, the adult did his best not to break into tears again, "That is one of the many terrible things."

"Wh-what happened," the mother weakly grasped his arm, "P-please, t-tell me! Wh-what happened t-to …"

"What was that? I-is," Groove gulped, hiding behind his bondmate as he heard something shift on the other side of the little tent, "Who is that?"

"Ah..." The autodog sighed tiredly smiling. "You can come out! They are friendly! I promise they won't hurt you."

"Hot Spot," the mother shivered in fright, pulling First Aid in closer, "Who is that?"

"It's okay, it's okay," trying to calm everyone down, the mech slowly walked over to the darker side of the ten, gently leading someone out with him, "Groove, First Aid, meet Bla…"

"INTRUDER!" One of the guards shrieked, alerting the whole camp. "INTRUDER ALERT!"

* * *

"… slag it," Blades grunted. "They got the whole thing covered."

"This may be harder than I originally anticipated." Yoketron scratched his head, double checking in case they missed something. "Doesn't look like we can just charge it …"

"Charge it? Hm," the autodog thought about it for an astrosecond, estimating the height of the fort wall, "How much of a lift can you give me?"

A shadow sneaked in the dusk on top of the cliffs, trying to get a good view point at the camp.

"A few meters definitely. Wait you are not thinking …"

"I don't see you coming up with any better ideas."

Noticing the two, the figure laid low, quickly swung off a sniper rifle and aimed it at them.

"We are going to make an awful lot of noise."

"I will, heh, distract, them," the bull terrier patted his knives, "While you go around and flank them or something."

Following their every movement closely, the cloaked shape kept glancing at the soldiers on the wall.

"… just don't get yourself killed." Both dashed to the wall, Yoketron getting there first and giving his partner a jumping start. "Remember the three parts to our plan!"

"Stab, mar," running up the wall, Blades caught one of the guards bending over to see what was going on by the head; pulled himself over the wall in one fluid motion and with a swiftly ran a knife through the mechs' backstruts, "Carve!"

"INTRUDER ALERT," another soldier shrieked and activated the alarm, "INTRUDER ALERT!"

Sitting itself more comfortably, the shadow started carefully picking off the Rebel Force snipers one by one.

* * *

"… ngh," a kittycon moaned in his sleep, "Mmm …"

"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!"

"… whoa." Shooting right up from his dreams, the mech rushed to the window and looked down from the tower. "What? What is going on there?"

"… nnn," someone whimpered in the room, "Ah …"

"Commander Hook!" A soldier barged into the room. "We are under attack by an unknown enemy! We are trying to hold them back! What are your orders?"

"Get our snipers," he quickly walked to one of the tables and started putting on his armor, "I will be right there!"

"… hmmm," starting to sniffle, someone got off the berth and walked on their fours to the corner, "Aaah …"

"Our snipers are getting slaughtered," completely ignoring the third person as they started to peek outside the window, the soldier continued his report, "I ordered them to lay low until you have checked out the situation."

"Good. Get our boys to the second ring." The commander put on the last of his gear and walked over to the weapons locker, shoving the autodog back on the berth. "I will be right there."

"… aaahn," shivering and starting to tear up, the Akita didn't dare look at the kittycon, grasping his bulging belly, "Hnnn …"

"Sir," saluting, the lieutenant left, "Yes, sir!"

"And you, my dear pet," painfully grabbing his prisoner by the chin, making him sniffle, the mech patted him on the belly, "Make sure the sparkling lives."

"… aaahaa," desperately sticking out his glossa and starting to suck on the soldier's digits, the captive weakly grasped his servos, "Aaaah …"

"Look at you." Playing around with his mouth, the officer grinned, looking in the lifeless optics. "You can't even understand what I am saying, can you? You were tough, I admit, but just like all of them you are merely a tiny frag toy. What was your name again? Streetwise or something? Heh, no matter! You are more of a someone now than you used to be!"

"Stay," violently pushing the Akita, Hook exited his quarters, "pet."

"… B-bl-bla…" Shivering, the mech got up and slowly walked to the door, grasping his belly. "…des …"

* * *

"Hook," the sniper kept screaming into the commlink, "We have been annihilated!"

"What," the kittycon patched through, "By whom?"

"I don't know!" Hearing a rock hit the ground, she turned around and readied to fire. "I don't know!"

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I never saw who did it," turning around to keep retreat, the femme found herself facing the barrel of a gun as a pair of optics glinted in the dark, "I …"

"Report," the commander yelled, finally making it down to the ground, "Report! Slag it! Lieutenant, get everyone to the helicopter pads! We will regroup there and end this!"

"Hm? You," hearing someone yip in pain, the commander looked up the stairs, "I thought I told you to stay! That's it, you are coming with me!"

* * *

"… where are they," Blades shoved his way through the prisoners, hectically looking around the camp, "Where are they?"

With the rebels retreating, this was the perfect opportunity to find his family. But with every faceplate he didn't recognize, his hope grew dimmer, getting weaker in the knees as fear and desperation slowly clutched his spark.

"Dad, mom! First Aid! Streetwise! Anyone," yelling off the top of his lungs, the teen only ran faster, "Please! Mom! Dad! First Aid! Streetwise! Where are you?"

"Blades, Blades," Hot Spot appeared through the chaotic mob, grabbing him by the arm, barely stopping the mech, "Y-you are …"

"DAD," not giving the adult time to finish, he gave him such a tight hug that the father thought his son would squish him to death, "YOU ARE ALIVE!"

"M-my sparkling," Groove rushed out of the tent, unable to stand on his pedes any longer, "Oh, my sparkling!"

"MOM! DAD!" Crying his optics out, the bull terrier forced himself away. "No, no, we can do this later! I need to get you out of here!"

"… but …"

"He is right," the Affenpinscher gulped, holding his bondmate back, "We need to get out of here first. Blades, the keys to the gates and transports are in Hook's possession. You need to get them from hi…"

"S-sorry," breathing heavily, the teen gulped, "B-but is Streetwise here?"

"H-he," swallowing sharply, the dad clenched his fists as he glanced to the side, growling, "He is, ghr, alive."

"Wh-what about First Aid?"

"Yeah, First Aid is here. There is, um, someone you should meet."

"Oh? Wh-who?"

"It's um," he stepped into the tent and was about to come out when Yoketron ran up to them:

"Blades, we have a situation!"

"… but …"

"We don't have time." Dragging the mech away, it wasn't a few astroseconds later that they were climbing a hill. "They are about to annihilate all of us!"

"… just a little longer," bull terrier whispered and refocused his attention, "I promise. All right, what do we do?"

"This is where it gets problematic." Lying down in cover, the autodog showed him the hangars right under the tall, rocky cliff walls, with a helicopter pad in the middle of the wide open space. "Hook is in that empty warehouse over there. He is …"

"Got it." Blades jumped into the shadows and circled around the concentration camp guards readying the heavy ammunition.

"… there with Streetwise. Um," scratching his head, the elder nervously chuckled, "That was probably a mistake …"

* * *

First Aid was confused, shocked, hurting badly, not to mention frightened on top of it all. It helped a little that momma came to this big mech with a pleasantly familiar smell, but the other person... The sparkling had no idea what to make out of them as they trembled in the darkest corner of the half-constructed tent.

Slowly trotting to them, the Australian shepherd knelt in front of the figure. A whimper came out of the shape's mouth when he reached out his servo, wracked with shivers as the sparkling to stroke their ears like momma did his.

* * *

"… wrong warehouse." Peeking inside yet another structure, Blades ran to the next one. "Wrong, wrong, wrong …"

"… respond! Base Theta," a horrifyingly known voice suddenly shocked his systems, "Respond! Srap, they are jamming our communications! Bonecrusher, you are the runner! Go to the nearest outpost! Tell Scorponok to send reinforcements! Move it!"

"… c'mere, come to papa," quickly and quietly moving between some crates, the autodog could barely keep it together, "Come to me you fr…"

"Oh, will, you, please, just," back-handing someone so hard that they fell to the ground, yipping in pain, the commander walked up to them and kicked the poor mech on the side a few times, "Shut, the, frag, up!"

"S-street…" Frozen, the teen's processor went haywire and his spar dropped to the floor. "…wise? Sparked?"

"You are so much luckier than the rest." The soldier only got more violent. "At the very least you could be a good pet and shut up! What, you still think that the little fragtard survived? He, is not …"

"… coming? Heh," Blades kicked a wooden box out of his way, slowly walking to the mech with his knives out, surprisingly feeling calm; gaze locked onto Hook's optics madly, "Here I am. Streetwise, give me a klick and we will be out of here."

"… aah," hazily looking into space, the Akita didn't even acknowledge him, "Nghh …"

* * *

She wanted to cry but there were no more tears left, not that her body could even produce any more. The big mech did his best; gave her whatever little food and water he managed to find. Another came in and occasionally brought a much better meal but those visits stopped soon. Too scared to do or ask anything, she just hid in the tent for days.

Now, more strangers! Feeling her energon-pump beat fast and hard, even with the other sparkling petting her, it was just too much -she had to get away. Crawling out from under one of the tent folds, she braved the crowd and ran for the bottom of the hill …

… which was when a strange scent tickler her olfactory sensors. Curiosity won over fear as she trotted into one of the warehouses and watched the unfolding of events that would decide the fate of everyone there.

* * *

"You will pay for what you have done," Blades slowly smirked, gaining momentum with the knives, "I will ensure that you suffer."

"You survived," Hook grinned. "I guessed that at least one vermin would have lived!"

"Funny." An insane smile drew on his lip components, maniacal optics tearing the kittycon apart as a psychotic laughter started escaping him. "I was just thinking of serving your aft as an appetizer for them!"

"Right," quickly grabbing Streetwise, he pointed a gun to the Akita's back, "You are an idiot."

"I am giving you one chance," taking a deep intake, the bull terrier readied himself, "To save yourself the pain and kill yourself now."

"I have a better idea! Why don't you slit your own throat, hm?"

"… aaah," weakly resisting, the mother started to silently cry, "Aaah …"

"You asked for it!"

With a swift move, Blades threw one of the daggers straight at the kittycon's optic, making him howl in pain as it pierced, releasing the autodog.

"Come on," he rushed forwards, grabbing his sibling's arm, "Let's get out of here!"

"No, no! I swore I will make you suffer! So," mustering whatever concentration he could, the commander lift up his gun and shot Streetwise in the back, bullet going through his belly, "There it is!"

"AAAAAAH! Ghaaa!" Screaming in agony and pain, the Akita dropped to the floor; shivering, bleeding, servos desperately grasping the already dead unborn. "Aaaaah! Aaaaah!"

"And now, you! Huh," as he was about to shoot the teen when he tripped over his pedes, falling face-down on the ground, driving the knife straight into the processor, body twitching in pre-death convulsions, "Ghrk …"

"Street'! Street'! No," kneeling down and pulling the mech into his arms, Blades could barely keep the tears away, "I did not come all this way, I did not wait all these years just to see you die on me!"

"… I … w-want," choking on energon, Streetwise weakly grasped the air, "Bl…bla…des …"

"Bro, I am here," trying to make optic contact, he didn't even feel how the tears poured down his cheekplates, "I am here!"

Then, it came.

"… wh…" the Akita stopped breathing as he looked at Blades, "Who … are … you?"

"… wh…" His whole being stung in dreadful, spark devastating agony. "…wh…"

"… what … have you … done … to … Blades?"

"… I … I …"

"y-you …m… mo…" Life slowly seeping out of his optics, Streetwise took his last outtake. "… monster …"

Blades couldn't hear the sound of dozens of Rebel soldiers run in and yell out commands, the only thing he could hear was the shattering of his world.

* * *

"What happened here," one asked, "Hook is dead!"

"Who is this kid?"

"…on…er …," he barely audibly mumbled.

"What," a kittycon approached him, "What?"

"… I … ster …"

"What are you saying? Speak louder!"

"I … am … a," slowly standing up with his optics shuttered, the mech's body relaxed, "Monster."

"Uh," the soldiers glanced at each other, a feeling of fore-boding rapidly crawling through them, "What?"

Blades took a very deep intake and suddenly, unleashed a truly horrifying, hellish, spark-tearing scream that threw everyone into panic as he jumped the nearest enemy.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

* * *

It wasn't murder.

It wasn't carnage.

It wasn't massacre.

It was pure and simple.

Overkill.

Blades didn't even bother to aim, he just terminated, destroyed, annihilated, maimed, killed. Nobody escaped; all 86 Rebel Force Soldiers laid offline, brutally slaughtered.

Not one remained.

"You," whole body shivering, he slowly walked to the sparkling covered in energon from ears to pede, "You came to witness a monster?"

The kid stared at him, fear ruling over her spark.

"Why, do you wish to be entertained? Why," grabbing her by the shoulders and lifting the child in the air, the bull terrier screamed, "WHY DO YOU SMELL LIKE STREETWISE?"

"… because," Hot Spot's voice came from the other end of the warehouse, "Blades, there is something you should know."

"Wh-what," the autodog was too tired to turn around. Even if he wasn't, that sparkling was driving him insane, "what?"

"Blades," the father sighed, walking up to him. "This is Blades. She is your daughter."

* * *

Hot Spot wondered where it all went to hell.

"… no, Blades," the father desperately fought to free himself and get the bull terrier out of the burning building, "No!"

It didn't stop there, not by a long shot.

"… y-you can't do this!" Yet again, the mech did his best but his efforts amounted to nothing as the Affenpinscher watched in horror as Groove and First Aid were dragged away. "You can't do this to us! We are pea…"

One good side to Rebel Force-grade stun sticks is that they knock out cold on the spot.

"… dad, dad." Streetwise's pleas was the first thing he heard, slowly coming back online. "Dad!"

They were getting transported to a concentration camp. That's when things just didn't stop getting progressively worse; everyone, no exception, had to pick up a pickaxe and dig. Some said they were mining precious metals but it was all Ick-Yak slag. The machinery was just used to dump the rocks into the ocean.

Then one day he found out about Streetwise and Blades.

Hot Spot sat on a boulder, taking a short break to drink some water when something weird caught his attention; the Akita rushed to hide behind a rock, hiding from everyone's view … everyone's except for the father. Watching him throw up and lean back, with horror and confusion he saw his belly bulge just a tiny bit.

"… son," sitting him down back at their tent, the mech looked the little one in the optics, "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"… um," the teen nervously twitched, "Uh …"

"Son."

"Yeah," gulping, the pup stood up, taking deep intakes, "I, um, I am, oh, Primus, this is so messed up!"

"Take your ti…"

"I am sparked," whimpering, the Akita hugged himself. "A-an-and Bl-la-ades …"

He wanted to scream, yell, break things but the autodog had only enough energy left for a hug and a few tears.

What the frag was he supposed to do? There was no telling how much longer they would be here, if they ever left to begin with. After a few klicks of persuasion, the son agreed for Hot Spot to perform an abortion. All the tools were gathered and he was about to go through with the procedure when the guards walked in and unceremoniously dragged the two outside.

"… no, no, hm, take this one, yes, no, yes, yes." A mech in strange green and purple armor with a golden faceguard, was going through the line of prisoners, wielding some strange servo operated device. All those they selected were shoved onto a truck with a weird scorpion tail sign. "This one, oh, Master will be pleased with this one! No, no …"

"… hm," he tapped the screen when he scanned Streetwise, "Inform your commander that your stock is breeding."

Seven months, nine seven the father didn't see his son until one day:

"You," the guard grabbed him by the arm and dragged to one of the small towers, "Let's go! Hurry up!"

"I-I didn't do anything wrong," the Affenpinscher protested, "I fulfilled the quota!"

"It is about your little whore," carelessly pulling him up the stairs, the two finally got to the barracks, "You sick pedophile."

"That's my so…"

"…aaaaah," the mech was interrupted by a sparkling's scream, "Aaaaah!"

"Congratulations, freak," Hook grinned, holding the baby in his arms, "You are a father now! I have to admit, you are quite the sick glitch for making your son have your little sparkling!"

"Th-this," breathing heavily, Streetwise tried to get out of his restraints, belly slowly lessening in size as amniotic fluids kept pouring out, "It's Blades! Blades! Give me back my Blades!"

"Oh, that mutt is the father? Well that makes things just that much more interesting! Tell you what," vilely smirking, the kittycon walked over to Hot Spot, "Raise this product of your disgusting filth you call sons, and instead, I will not offline the rest of your family! Deal?"

"Ghr..." Very tired, extremely exhausted, mind numb, spark crumbling, the mech did what he thought was best. "Fine. When are you letting Streetwise go?"

"I am sorry." Hook froze in place. "I must not have heard you correctly because what you said sounded like epic stupidity of a typical autodog."

"… wh-what?"

"N-no, dad," the Akita weakly pushed against the restraints, "Please! Don't let them do thi…"

"Silence." Violently back-handing the mother, the soldier choked his prisoner. "You will not speak unless spoken to, you will not say words but moan and groan like the other animals do. You are a toy; my pet now!"

"Haven't you hurt us enough?"

"Get this dirtbag out of here!"

"… aaah! Aaaah! Waaaaaah!"

Streetwise named her Blades and to top it off, he was now a frag toy! The sheer horror of the situation could not be put in words. On the rare occasion the Akita would manage to sneak out with some food, water and a warm blanket, but those visits were always short and soon enough grew less in frequency. One day, Hot Spot wanted to plain out tear the Rebels apart when Hook "took his pet out for a walk"; buck naked, on all fours, panting like an animal as his lifeless optics looked at everyone in fear.

"Hey, look," leading the Akita over, the kittycon smirked, "This is your dada! Hey, everyone! Look! This mech over here is the father of this little glitch over here! Guess what? I am fragging this slut and all I hear are whimpers and moans of pleasure!"

"Ghaaa," charging forwards, the veteran leaped to Streetwise and was about to break his neck but the Rebel officer jammed two stun sticks into the ex-soldier's neck, knocking him out, "Oooaaaa!"

The amazing thing about Cybertronians is that they adapt; soon enough, it all became a routine part of life: the abuse, his joints slowly murdering him, the overwhelming emotional pain …

Blades was there at least, the one sliver of family he knew wasn't dead or getting violated on a daily basis.

"… I should pick a new name for you," feeding the sparkling once, he looked in her green optics, "Hm …"

Then Groove arrived with First Aid. For the first time in three years, Hot Spot dared to have hope … but not for long …

"… Blades a-a-and," the Komondor gasped and fell back on the ground, "And Streetwise?"

"We will pull through." The bondmate kissed him and headed to the launching area. "I promise. Wait, where is Blades? Where is she? Oh, no! I have to find her!"

He had to know, he deserved to know. There probably would be a better time but Hot Spot was just too hurt and tired.

Damaged, just like his family.

* * *

"… let their sparks join with Primus," a captured autowolf priest went over to each body, Rebel and prisoner, saying her prayers, "Find forgiveness and salvation …"

The femme didn't notice how First Aid wondered onto the hill and walked over to the corpses, each covered with a sheet. Thinking that one of them smelled familiar, he slowly trotted to it when a sudden burst of wind threw the blanket off; revealing a pair of dead optics, filled with unbearable desperation.

Streetwise.

* * *

Just as he thought – the snipers were all dead. Shot to the head, no chance of survival.

"… hm," closely inspecting every micrometer, Yoketron went over the whole area, finally finding something – a bronze colored bullet, "Hrm …"

Carefully wiping the dried energon off it, he could clearly see a word, a name, etched into the metal.

Unicron.

* * *

"… Lo-ord Scorponok," Oil Slick gulped as the last of the footage played on the holopad, "Th-this …"

"Did they bury their dead here?" The giant ignored him as he walked among the graves.

"Y-yes, my Lord!"

"Where is the grave of this Streetwise?"

"R-right here, my Lord!"

"Hm..." For a short while, the mech went silent. "Dig him up and bring the remains to my laboratory."

"M-my L-lord?"

"I," optics glinting in vile mischief, Scorponok went back to his transport, "Have a science project in mind."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**WHAT WILL SCORPONOK DO TO STREETWISE'S CORPSE?**

**BLADES HAS A DAUGHTER?**

**What will happen now? Tune in next time!**

**Wow, it has been so long since I wrote this ficcy. Sorry again C.M.D. for the wait ^ ^'!**

**And this is where I am going to start the mini-chappies! A lot of them will have some important details to add to the main story, some will just have some nice fluff to take the reader's mind off the madness, it will vary!**

**I hope this answers a lot of the questions some of you who follow C.M.D.'s fanfiction had regarding First Aid and some of the things that happened ... and brought in even MORE QUESTIONS XD MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

**If you have any questions, don't hesitate!**

**Thanks for reading! Please be kind enough to leave a review, please~? =D**

**Thanks to C.M.D. for editing, reviewing, crying, and raging at Scorponok!**


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